E 
OYER 


BERTR/ 
ACRES 


AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 


BY 


VIRNA   WOODS 


'JASON   HILDRETH'S    IDENTITY 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

($&e  fttoerisibe 

1898 


COPYRIGHT,  1898,   BT  VIRNA  WOODS 
All  rights  reserved. 


CONTENTS 

PASB 

I.  AN  UNEXPLAINED  ABSENCE      ...      1 

II.  CASTLE-BUILDING    .        .        .        .        .        19 

HI.  REX  CAKRINGTON 81 

IV.   THE  SYMBOL 42 

V.  A  CHALLENGE     ...                        .    48 

VI.  MOUNT  LOWE  ....                .69 

VII.   CLODDS 92 

VIII.  A  STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         .        .      106 

IX.  AVALON 120 

X.  A  BROKEN  PROMISE       ....      139 

XI.  MRS.  CAKRINGTON  is  ALARMED         .        .  147 

XII.  THE  ARREST 162 

XIII.  THE  RING 178 

XTV.  A  REMARKABLE  RESEMBLANCE     .        .      191 

XV.  A  STARTLING  THEORY       .        .        .        .204 

XVI.  THE  TRIAL 213 

XVH.  A  REBUFF 228 

XVHI.  AN  UNSUCCESSFUL  RUSE        ...      238 

XIX.  VICTORY     .                                                 .  245 


AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 


AN   UNEXPLAINED    ABSENCE 

THE  clock  struck  eight  and  he  had  not 
come.  Constance  rose  and  walked  impa- 
tiently to  the  window.  She  was  dressed  for 
the  street,  but  had  thrown  her  heavy  cloak 
across  a  chair  till  she  should  be  ready  to  go 
out.  She  looked  down  the  sidewalk,  and 
began  to  scan  the  faces  of  the  passers- 
by,  that  flashed  a  moment  under  her  win- 
dow, lit  up  by  the  glow  of  the  electric  light 
on  the  corner.  Her  smooth  brow  was  gath- 
ered in  a  frown,  and  the  sweetness  of  the 
thin  lips  was  marred  by  a  pout  that  was  not 
natural  to  them.  She  wore  a  bonnet  that 
showed  a  golden-brown  circle  of  hair  brushed 
back  from  a  broad  brow,  and  the  full  con- 


2  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

tour  of  a  face  that  Gottfried  had  said  was 
shaped  like  a  heart.  Nor  was  the  resem- 
blance altogether  fanciful,  for  it  sloped  from 
the  broad  brow  to  a  somewhat  sharp  chin, 
the  severity  of  whose  expression  was  modi- 
fied by  the  great  sweetness  of  the  mouth. 
A  little  point  of  hair  growing  lower  at  the 
middle  of  the  forehead  completed  the  gen- 
eral outline  of  a  heart.  The  skin  was  fair, 
the  cheeks  a  delicate  pink,  and  the  eyes  a 
deep  azure.  The  figure  was  slender,  but 
well  rounded,  and  of  medium  height.  It 
was  a  face  and  a  form  that  Gottfried  had 
used  as  a  model  for  his  painting  of  the 
Madonna. 

This  thought  passed  through  Constance's 
mind  as  she  stood  waiting  at  the  window, 
leading  to  other  thoughts  that  centred 
chiefly  about  the  evening  before,  when  Gott- 
fried had  been  with  her. 

It  was  then  he  had  first  told  her  that  he 
loved  her.  Only  twenty-four  hours  had  in- 
tervened, and  already  it  seemed  to  her  that 
she  had  known  the  sweet  truth  for  years. 


AN    UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  3 

He  had  told  her  of  his  ambitions  and  his 
plans,  and  she  had  promised  to  wait  for 
him  until  he  had  made  a  name  for  himself 
and  won  a  home  for  her.  At  last,  just 
before  he  left  her,  as  he  held  her  face  be- 
tween his  hands,  he  had  told  her  he  would 
come  the  next  night  to  take  her  to  a  concert. 
A  great  violinist  was  to  be  in  the  city,  and 
she  had  been  thinking  of  it  for  weeks ;  but 
she  was  only  a  poor  music-teacher  with  an 
invalid  mother,  and  she  had  not  thought  she 
could  afford  to  go.  But  at  his  words  her 
eyes  had  lit  up  with  pleasure,  and  she  had 
thanked  him  with  a  shy  kiss,  which  he 
had  passionately  returned.  Now  she  turned 
from  the  window  and  glanced  at  the  inex- 
orable clock.  It  was  a  quarter  past  the 
hour  for  the  performance  to  begin ;  and  he 
had  said  he  would  come  at  half-past  seven. 
She  sat  down  and  tried  to  restrain  the  tears 
that  welled  up  in  her  eyes. 

"  Constance  !  "  called  a  voice  from  an  ad- 
joining room. 

"Yes,  mamma,"  the  girl  replied,  as  she 


4  ^V  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

parted  the  portieres  and  went  into  a  dark- 
ened chamber  where  a  form,  indistinct  in 
the  shadow,  lay  on  a  couch. 

"Hasn't  he  come,  dear?"  the  voice  con- 
tinued. 

"  No,  mamma,"  the  girl  replied,  going  up 
to  the  invalid  and  kneeling  beside  her. 

The  mother  lifted  her  hand  and  laid  it 
against  the  girl's  cheek.  Visions  and  mem- 
ories of  her  own  youth  returned  to  her. 

"  And  do  you  love  him  very  much,  dear  ?  " 
she  asked  after  a  pause. 

"  Very  much,  mamma,"  the  girl  answered 
with  a  sob. 

But  she  checked  herself  with  the  instinct 
of  sparing  the  invalid  pain ;  for  her  mother, 
fragile  and  still  pretty,  notwithstanding  her 
illness  and  years  of  disappointment,  seemed 
to  her  something  to  be  petted  and  cared  for. 
So  she  rose  without  complaint,  took  off  her 
bonnet  and  gloves,  and  returned  to  the  front 
room  to  put  it  in  order  for  the  night. 

It  was  only  a  small  room  in  an  apart- 
ment house,  but  it  had  an  air  of  beauty  and 


AN    UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  5 

refinement  about  it  that  reflected  the  nature 
of  its  occupant.  With  the  exception  of  the 
grand  piano,  the  furnishings  were  inexpen- 
sive ;  but  there  were  several  good  etchings, 
a  graceful  jardiniere  containing  a  delicate 
fern,  soft  curtains  in  old  rose  and  blue,  and 
a  silken  screen  before  the  fireplace.  There 
was  a  shelf  of  books  on  the  wall,  and  a  late 
magazine  lay  open  on  the  table. 

The  girl  removed  her  wrap  from  the  chair, 
turned  out  the  gas,  and  drew  the  curtains  at 
the  windows.  The  soft,  silvery  strokes  of 
the  clock  counted  the  hour  of  nine,  as  she 
passed  with  a  smothered  sigh  into  her 
mother's  room. 

The  next  morning  she  awoke  with  a  thrill 
of  pain  and  sense  of  disappointment  that 
were  quickly  succeeded  by  hope.  Surely, 
she  thought,  she  would  receive  word  from 
Gottfried  this  morning.  He  had  been  un- 
avoidably detained  the  night  before,  and 
would  write  her  a  note,  or  come  himself  to 
explain.  She  felt  so  sure  of  it  that  the 
thought  had  something  of  the  illusion  of 


6  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

reality ;  and  she  could  almost  hear  his  voice 
and  feel  the  touch  of  his  lips  on  her  face. 

But  two  hours  later,  when  she  was  ready 
to  go  out  on  her  daily  round  of  lessons,  no 
word  had  come.  She  stepped  out  on  the 
street  and  walked  briskly  away,  comforted 
by  a  new  hope.  He  would  be  watching  for 
her  at  the  window  of  his  studio,  where  she 
had  first  seen  him  several  months  before, 
and  had  gradually  learned  to  look  for  his 
face.  Often,  indeed,  she  had  been  disap- 
pointed ;  but  many  mornings  she  had  found 
him  there  at  work,  and  he  had  never  failed 
to  see  her  pass.  She  recalled  their  first 
chance  meeting.  She  had  been  caught  in 
the  rain,  and  was  hurrying  down  the  street 
toward  the  house  of  one  of  her  pupils,  when 
he  overtook  her.  He  was  carrying  an  um- 
brella, and  with  some  diffidence  offered  her 
its  protection. 

"  I  haf  the  pleasure  of  your  acquaintance 
by  the  window,"  he  said  by  way  of  apology. 

Constance  blushed  and  smiled,  and*  mind- 
ful of  the  new  ribbons  on  her  hat,  did  not 


AN   UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  7 

refuse  the  proffered  shelter.  In  some  way 
his  face  and  manner  inspired  her  with  con- 
fidence ;  and  besides,  she  said  to  herself,  one 
is  more  unconventional  in  California  than  in 
the  East.  She  was  surprised  at  his  German 
accent,  for  there  was  nothing  in  his  appear- 
ance to  suggest  a  foreign  nationality.  His 
features  were  clear-cut  and  firm,  his  eyes 
and  hair  dark ;  his  mouth,  concealed  only  by 
a  mustache,  was  strong  but  sensitive.  After 
all,  it  was  the  expression  of  his  eyes,  more 
than  anything  else,  that  made  Constance 
instinctively  trust  him. 

"  Have  you  been  here  long  ?  "  she  asked 
nervously,  breaking  an  embarrassing  silence. 

"  Oh,  no,"  he  said ;  "  I  am  come  from 
Germany — to  make  my  fortune."  And  he 
laughed. 

"It  is  beautiful  here  —  in  Los  Angeles," 
she  observed.  "  Are  you  a  landscape 
painter  ?  " 

"  A  little,"  he  said,  "  but  more  of  figures 
and  faces.  What  is  it  you  call  it  ?  —  por- 
traits." 


8  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

He  looked  at  her  admiringly,  and  thought 
of  the  Madonna  he  wanted  to  paint ;  but  he 
dared  not  ask  her  to  sit  for  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  rain  and  the  sudden 
chill  in  the  air,  it  seemed  all  too  soon  that 
they  came  to  the  house  of  her  pupil,  and  she 
turned  and  thanked  him  prettily  for  his  kind- 
ness. He  longed  then  to  ask  her  if  he  might 
call  on  her,  but  the  words  choked  in  his 
throat,  and  instead  he  lifted  his  hat  and 
walked  thoughtfully  down  the  street. 

They  had  been  together  only  a  few  min- 
utes, but  something  had  entered  into  the  life 
of  each  and  subtly  changed  for  them  the 
commonplace  routine  of  the  days.  Now, 
when  she  passed  his  window,  she  could  do 
no  less  than  bow,  and  he  learned  to  watch 
and  wait  impatiently  for  her  coming. 

It  happened,  too,  with  curious  coincidence 
that  he  tried  by  various  excuses  to  explain, 
that  he  often  came  out  of  the  house  just  as 
she  approached,  and  walked  down  the  street 
with  her.  But  sometimes  for  many  days  she 
missed  him ;  and  once  when  he  reappeared 


AN   UNEXPLAINED  ABSENCE  9 

and  she  referred  to  his  absence,  he  started 
and  flushed,  then  spoke  vaguely  of  business 
in  the  country. 

"  But  a  foreigner,  my  dear,"  her  mother 
had  protested  nervously  when  Constance 
told  her  he  had  asked  if  he  might  call.  But 
Mrs.  Wilbur  herself  had  yielded  at  once  to 
the  charm  of  his  ingenuous  manner. 

As  the  acquaintance  progressed,  the  young 
artist  had  dropped  into  the  habit  of  coming 
in  the  evening  with  sketches  to  show  Con- 
stance, or  a  volume  of  German  verse.  She 
had  studied  German  a  little  in  her  school- 
days, and  he  was  freshening  and  perfecting 
her  knowledge  of  the  language.  At  last  he 
gained  courage  to  ask  her  to  srt  for  his  Ma- 
donna, and  their  evenings  together  were 
supplemented  by  long  hours  in  the  studio. 

Constance  thought  of  these  things  as  she 
walked  down  the  street  the  morning  after 
her  disappointment,  and  of  the  evening  he 
had  asked  her  to  be  his  wife.  Her  cheeks 
flushed  and  her  heart  beat  fast  as  she  ap- 
proached the  house  where  he  lived.  She 


10  A.\T  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

looked  at  his  window,  and  her  eyes  filled 
with  tears  ;  for  the  blind  was  drawn,  and  the 
plant  he  had  set  on  the  broad  window-sill 
had  begun  to  droop. 

Day  after  day  she  looked  for  him  in  vain. 
Her  cheeks  paled  a  little,  and  often  her  eyes 
showed  traces  of  tears.  But  she  went  about 
her  tasks  as  usual,  taking  her  solitary  walks, 
or  riding  lonely  and  unnoticed  on  the  crowded 
cars  through  the  city,  to  the  houses  of  her 
pupils,  and  with  unfailing  patience  caring 
for  the  invalid  mother  at  home.  Methodi- 
cally she  went  through  the  hours  of  her 
practice  ;  but  the  old  joy  in  her  music  was 
gone.  Each  morning  she  watched  for  the 
postman  with  feverish  impatience,  and  when 
he  had  gone  by  fell  into  an  apathy  that  was 
broken  only  when,  in  her  morning  walk,  she 
approached  the  studio  window. 

One  evening,  just  a  week  after  the  night 
of  the  concert,  she  sat  by  the  window,  gazing 
idly  down  the  street.  She  lived  in  a  quiet 
suburb  in  the  southeastern  part  of  the  city, 
on  a  street  that  had  been  built  up  within 


AN    UNEXPLAINED  ABSENCE  11 

the  last  two  or  three  years.  There  were 
roses  and  fuchsias  and  geraniums  in  the  gar- 
den, and  a  large  pepper-tree.  The  sidewalk 
also  was  lined  with  a  row  of  pepper-trees. 
She  looked  out  on  a  succession  of  pretty 
cottages,  each  with  its  grass-plot  and  border 
of  flowers. 

Suddenly  she  started  to  her^feet  with  a 
low  cry.  Gottfried  was  approaching  the 
house,  and,  seeing  her  at  the  window,  lifted 
his  hat  and  smiled. 

She  ran  to  the  door  to  meet  him. 

"  I  have  been  so  worried  about  you,"  she 
exclaimed,  as  she  led  the  way  into  the  house. 
"  Where  have  you  been  so  long  ?  " 

"Why,  I  did  not  think  you  would  be 
looking  for  me  yet,"  he  said  in  surprise. 
"  I  haf  to  your  house  early  come  to  show 
you  some  sketches." 

He  had  learned  English  rapidly  in  the 
last  few  months,  and  it  was  rarely  that  he 
lapsed  into  German  idiom.  Constance  no- 
ticed it  now  with  some  surprise. 

As  the  door  closed  behind  them,  he  took 


12  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

her  face  in  his  hands  and  kissed  it.  She 
clung  to  him  with  a  strange  feeling  that  if 
she  did  not  hold  him  he  might  vanish. 

"  But  you  are  not  ready  to  go,"  he  said, 
looking  at  the  dainty  house  dress  she  wore. 

"  To  go  ?  "  she  echoed  ;  but  before  he  had 
time  to  reply,  she  spoke  again.  "  Where 
have  you  been  all  the  week  ?  "  she  asked. 
"  Why  did  n't  you  write,  if  you  had  to  go 
away?" 

He  turned  white,  and,  staggering  back  a 
step,  clutched  at  the  piano  to  support  him- 
self. 

"  Is  it  a  week  since  I  have  been  here  ?  " 
he  asked  in  a  low  tone. 

"  Yes,"  she  said.  "  Don't  you  even  re- 
member how  long  it  is  ?  and  that  we  did  not 
get  to  the  concert  at  all  ?  " 

He  did  not  notice  the  reproach  in  her 
voice. 

"  Again  !  "  he  muttered.  "  Mein  Gott, 
mein  Gott !  " 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  she  cried,  going  up  to 
him  and  laying  her  hands  on  his  shoulders. 
"  Gottfried,  Gottfried  !  " 


AN    UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  13 

" Mem  armes  Liebchen ! "  he  replied. 
"  Why  did  1  ask  you  to  be  my  wife  ?  " 

"  But  don't  you  love  me  any  more  ?  "  she 
asked ;  and  the  heart-like  face  was  so  near 
his  own  that  he  bent  his  head  and  kissed  it. 

"  Can  you  trust  me,  dear  ?  "  he  said.  "  I 
cannot  tell  you  why  I  did  not  come.  I  can 
only  say  that  it  was  not  within  my  power. 
Can  you  believe  me  ?  " 

She  looked  in  his  eyes  and  read  the  truth 
of  his  words. 

"  Yes,"  she  said ;  "  strange  as  it  is,  I  be- 
lieve you." 

"  And  you  will  not  question  me  ?  "  he 
asked. 

"  No,"  she  replied  ;  "  I  will  not  question 
you." 

"  I  will  show  you  the  sketches,"  he  said  ; 
and  as  they  sat  down  at  the  table,  he  drew 
them  from  his  pocket. 

They  embraced  views  of  picturesque  parts 
of  the  city  and  of  Pasadena,  and  of  the 
Sierra  Madre  Villa,  surrounded  with  pep- 
pers and  palms,  the  serrated  outlines  of 


14  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

mountains  rising  in  the  background.  There 
were  also  several  figure-studies ;  a  Spanish 
seiiorita  with  a  guitar,  a  child-faced  flower- 
girl  with  sprays  of  lilies  and  bunches  of  La 
France  roses  drooping  from  her  basket ;  and 
an  old  woman  gathering  driftwood  from  the 
beach. 

"  You  will  be  great,  Gottfried,"  said  Con- 
stance at  last,  looking  up  from  the  sketches 
and  letting  her  eyes  rest  on  his  face. 

"  Do  you  think  so  ?  "  he  asked  musingly. 
"  Do  you  think  so,  or  is  it  only  the  fancy  of 
love  ?  " 

"  No,  it  is  true,"  she  replied ;  and  she  be- 
gan to  speak  in  detail  of  the  perfection  of 
outline  and  shading  in  the  work. 

Gottfried  was  surprised. 

"  I  did  not  know  you  knew  so  much  about 
art,"  he  said. 

"Oh,"  she  answered  laughing,  "I  have 
studied  art  subjects  assiduously  of  late.  I 
want  to  be  able  to  understand  my  husband's 
work." 

She  said  the  words   softly,  and   a  faint 


AN    UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  15 

flush  deepened  the  rose  of  her  cheeks.  He 
moved  nearer,  and,  resting  his  elbow  on  the 
table,  held  out  his  open  palm  to  her.  She 
leaned  towards  him  and  laid  her  cheek 
in  it. 

Long  afterward  she  remembered  the  ca- 
ress and  dreamed  of  it  with  intense  long- 
ing ;  and  before  sorrow  came,  it  was  one  of 
the  beads  in  her  rosary  of  recollections  that 
she  counted  happily  at  night  before  she  fell 
asleep. 

Before  he  went  away,  he  picked  up  the 
volume  of  Heine  he  had  given  her  and 
handed  it  to  her. 

"  Eead  me  a  poem  of  the  Harzreise"  he 
said.  "  It  is  so  long  since  I  have  read  my 
Heine  that  I  have  almost  forgotten  it.  But 
I  remember  that  his  verse  is  melodious  and 
tender  and  full  of  charming  imagery." 

She  opened  the  book  and  began  reading 
in  sweet,  low  tones. 

"  Ah,"  he  said,  as  she  finished,  "  I  can 
see  them  now  —  the  '  grauen  Schlossruinen 
in  dem  Morgenlichte  stehn.'  And  the  old 


16  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

dreams  rise  up  again  and  my  heart's  door 
opens  to  them,  indeed.  Now  read  me  the 
dream  of  the  Fatherland ;  for  when  you  read 
to  me,  mein  Liebchen,  I  can  almost  feel  my- 
self on  the  high  mountain  by  the  Rhine,  lis- 
tening to  the  Zaubermelodien  of  the  waves 
that  murmur  below,  and  looking  down  on 
the  dear  Deutschland  blooming  clear  in  the 
sunshine." 

When  she  had  finished  reading,  he  looked 
at  her  with  the  smile  in  his  eyes  that  she 
had  learned  to  love. 

"Ah,  mein  Liebchen"  he  said,  "you 
catch  the  music  of  the  German  verse  —  the 
music  that  can  be  created  by  the  instru- 
ment of  no  other  language.  I  love  to  hear 
you  read  about  the  Fatherland.  But,  do 
you  know,  my  memories  of  Germany  already 
seem  vague,  like  the  visions  of  a  dream.  All 
the  past,  in  fact,"  he  added,  "  seems  like  a 
dream,  up  to  the  last  few  months,  since  I 
have  known  you.  Perhaps  that  is  because 
love  has  become  to  me  the  only  reality.  But 
Heine  makes  me  see  Germany  again  and 


AN   UNEXPLAINED   ABSENCE  17 

love  it ;  and  I  think  I  would  have  the 
Ileimweh  if  it  were  not  for  you.  But  some 
time  I  will  take  you  there,  and  we  will  see  it 
together." 

"  But  you  are  losing  your  German  accent 
and  your  ridiculous  idioms,  Gottfried,"  said 
Constance,  teasingly ;  "  and  when  you  go 
there,  they  will  take  you  for  an  American. 
I  shouldn't  wonder,"  she  added  with  a 
smile,  "  if,  by  that  time,  you  would  speak 
German  with  an  English  accent." 

He  had  risen  to  go,  and,  taking  her  face 
between  his  hands  in  his  favorite  caress,  he 
silenced  with  kisses  the  audacious  lips. 

When  he  had  gone,  the  happiness  and 
confidence  that  Constance  had  felt  in  his 
presence  were  disturbed  by  a  vague  sense  of 
trouble.  What  could  be  behind  the  mys- 
tery of  his  unexplained  absence  of  a  week  ? 
She  was  too  young  and  trustful  and  too 
much  in  love  not  to  believe  in  his  loyalty ; 
but  there  was  a  strangeness  about  it  all  that 
stirred  her  mind  to  an  uneasiness  of  which 
she  could  not  rid  herself. 


18  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Meantime,  Gottfried  was  walking  away 
from  the  house,  muttering  under  his  breath. 

"Again,  mein  Gott,  mein  Gott!  Mein 
armes  Liebchen!  " 

With  the  words,  he  drew  from  his  pocket 
two  concert  tickets,  and  tearing  them  to  bits 
gave  them  to  the  wind. 


II 

CASTLE-BUILDING 

CONSTANCE  WILBUR  was  an  only  child. 
Ever  since  she  could  remember,  her  parents 
had  been  in  straitened  circumstances.  Her 
mother,  however,  had  not  allowed  her  to 
grow  up  in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  she 
belonged  to  an  aristocratic  family.  Mrs. 
Wilbur's  mother  had  been  a  Randolph,  and 
her  father  belonged  to  a  wealthy  family  of 
Virginia.  A  strain  of  Quaker  blood  in  his 
ancestry  had  asserted  itself  in  him,  and  on 
account  of  religious  scruples  he  had  freed 
his  slaves,  thus  impoverishing  himself.  His 
wife,  who  had  been  a  great  belle,  was  not 
quite  contented  in  the  Ohio  home  to  which 
he  had  subsequently  taken  her  ;  and  their 
only  child  inherited  her  aspirations  and  am- 
bitions. As  the  child  grew  into  a  woman, 
however,  a  romantic  element  in  her  nature 


20  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

had  led  her  into  what  her  mother  termed 
the  folly  of  an  unfortunate  marriage.  Har- 
vey Wilbur  was  an  obscure  journalist,  with 
more  brains  and  nobility  of  character  than 
ancestry  or  wealth.  But  his  wife  was  happy 
with  him,  and,  like  her  mother,  transferred 
the  dreams  of  her  own  wealth  and  social 
success  in  which  she  had  indulged,  to  plans 
for  her  child. 

Constance  had  been  carefully  educated  at 
home.  From  her  mother  she  had  learned 
music  and  French  and  embroidery ;  from  her 
father  mathematics,  history,  literature,  and 
Latin.  A  year  of  elective  studies  at  a 
small  college,  in  which  she  had  gained  her 
somewhat  limited  knowledge  of  German, 
had  completed  the  instruction  she  had  re- 
ceived. 

At  this  time  her  father,  who  had  all  his 
life  been  engaged  in  a  hard  struggle  for 
existence,  broke  down  in  health,  and  was 
given  no  hope  by  his  physician  unless  he 
should  try  the  effect  of  a  more  favorable 
climate.  Strongly  against  his  will,  he  at 


CASTLE-BUILDING  21 

length  yielded  to  the  persuasions  of  his  wife 
and  daughter,  and  sacrificed  the  little  home 
that  represented  the  savings  of  many  years 
to  remove  to  California.  In  the  genial  cli- 
mate of  Los  Angeles  he  had,  for  a  time, 
seemed  to  recover  strength  ;  but  the  change 
was  only  temporary,  and  after  a  few  months 
of  alternating  hope  and  fear  he  died.  Mrs. 
Wilbur,  who  had  always  been  frail,  had 
broken  down  under  the  strain  of  nursing 
and  anxiety  and  grief.  Thus  upon  Con- 
stance had  devolved  the  responsibility  of 
the  support  of  her  mother  and  herself  in  a 
strange  land. 

She  had  taken  a  few  piano  lessons  of  a 
noted  teacher  in  the  city,  and  through  him 
had  secured  a  number  of  pupils,  the  most  of 
them  belonging  to  the  wealthy  classes.  A 
number  of  houses  she  visited  were  elegant 
residences  on  Figueroa  and  Adams  Streets, 
and  she  felt  keenly  the  good-natured  con- 
descension and  patronage  with  which  she 
was  treated.  As  she  had  found  little  oppor- 
tunity of  meeting  people  in  any  but  business 


22  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

relations,  she  had  made  few  acquaintances 
and  no  intimate  friends.  The  house  in 
which  she  and  her  mother  lived  was  occupied 
by  two  families  besides  themselves.  One 
consisted  of  two  unmarried  sisters,  who  fol- 
lowed the  trade  of  dressmaking ;  the  other 
was  composed  of  an  agent  for  patent  medi- 
cines, his  showy  little  wife,  and  their  ten- 
year-old  child.  While  Mrs.  Wilbur  and  her 
daughter  were  always  kind  and  courteous  to 
their  fellow-lodgers,  they  found  the  sisters  so 
reserved  and  the  others  so  uncongenial  that 
they  retired  more  and  more  into  themselves. 
Until  Constance  had  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Gottfried  Jager,  she  and  her  mother  had 
been  very  lonely,  and  on  this  account  it  had 
been  the  easier  for  Mrs.  Wilbur  to  give  up 
her  apparently  hopeless  dreams  of  a  bril- 
liant marriage  for  her  daughter. 

"But  Gottfried  will  be  great  some  day, 
and  —  who  knows  ?  —  rich,"  her  daughter 
had  said,  to  silence  her  regrets. 

Of  Gottfried's  past  history  the  girl  had 
been  able  to  learn  nothing  beyond  the  brief 


CASTLE-BUILDING  23 

statement  he  had  made  to  her  on  the  occa- 
sion of  their  first  meeting:  "I  am  come 
from  Germany  —  to  make  my  fortune." 
She  had,  indeed,  questioned  him  a  little 
about  his  family  and  friends,  but  without 
success. 

"  I  am  alone  in  the  world  —  but  for  you," 
he  had  answered  her. 

The  painting  of  the  Madonna  went  on, 
the  face  growing  day  by  day  more  beau- 
tiful. 

"  It  is  not  my  face,"  said  Constance  one 
day,  a  little  sadly ;  "  you  are  idealizing  it." 

"  No,"  said  Gottfried,  "  it  is  all  there ;  it 
is  all  there  sometimes  when  you  are  looking 
at  the  child." 

For,  several  times,  when  he  was  outlining 
the  figures,  she  had  posed  with  the  child  of 
Gottfried's  landlady  in  her  arms,  and  her 
heart  thrilled  and  warmed  as  she  held  the 
plump  and  rosy  baby  to  her  breast  and  felt 
the  eyes  of  Gottfried  lovingly  studying  her ' 
face.  Gottfried,  too,  was  moved  by  the 
sweet  picture  as  he  had  never  been  moved 


24  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

before.  Mrs.  Flannigan,  standing  in  the 
doorway  and  watching  them,  declared  that 
Constance  looked  like  the  holy  mother  her- 
self. 

"  And  it 's  proud  I  am  to  have  my  baby 
in  the  picture,"  she  added;  not  knowing 
that  in  this  case,  indeed,  the  face  was  to  be 
idealized. 

The  hours  in  the  studio  were  perhaps 
the  happiest  hours  the  lovers  passed.  Here 
they  discussed  their  dreams  of  Gottfried's 
success  and  their  plans  for  the  future.  The 
splendor  of  the  castles  they  builded  dazzled 
their  eyes  so  that  they  did  not  see  the  bare 
and  dingy  studio,  brightened  only  by  the 
bits  of  color  in  the  half-finished  paintings 
and  pastels  that  were  scattered  about  on 
easels  and  tables  and  against  the  walls. 

"I  hope,"  said  Gottfried  musingly  one 
day,  when  they  had  been  talking  over  a 
bright  plan  for  the  future,  "  that  it  will  not 
be  a  Schloss  am  Meere" 

"  Oh,  Gottfried,"  cried  Constance,  with  a 
note  of  pain  in  her  voice,  "  do  not  prophesy 


CASTLE-BUILDING  25 

such  terrible  things  for  our  beautiful  dreams. 
I  still  see  our  Castle  by  the  Sea,  with  the 
golden  and  rosy  clouds  about  it,  and  I  will 
not  hear  the  song  of  lamentation,  nor  see 
the  tears  and  the  black  mourning-robes. 
You  are  cruel  to  suggest  the  poem  to  me 
now." 

Gottfried  had  been  obliged  to  lay  down 
his  brush  and  go  over  to  her  to  comfort 
her. 

But  the  painting  was  finished  at  last,  and 
before  Gottfried  took  it  to  the  dealer's  on 
Spring  Street,  where  he  had  arranged  to 
exhibit  it  for  sale,  he  took  it  up  to  the 
house  to  show  to  Constance's  mother. 

"  I  believe  it  is  a  masterpiece,"  she  said, 
as  she  looked  at  the  beautiful  face  so  like 
her  daughter's.  "  It  is  a  shame  you  can't 
hang  it  in  a  Paris  salon  and  not  have  to 
sell  it  to  some  of  the  unappreciative  newly- 
rich  here." 

She  spoke  a  little  bitterly,  a  faint  flush  of 
resentment  at  their  poverty  rising  to  her  wan 
cheeks. 


26  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"Nevermind,"  said  Gottfried,  cheerily; 
"  I  shall  be  glad  if  the  newly  rich  prove  ap- 
preciative enough  to  take  it.  Its  sale  might 
make  my  reputation ;  at  least  it  would  pro- 
bably enable  me  to  get  orders  from  these 
despised  owners  of  the  shekels." 

So  the  painting  was  hung  in  the  dealer's 
window,  and  the  three  waited  anxiously  for 
the  result. 

They  had  not  long  to  wait.  Gottfried, 
indeed,  had  been  away  several  days  on  one 
of  his  mysterious  absences ;  but,  when  he 
returned,  he  said  nothing  about  it,  and  Con- 
stance had  not  the  courage  to  mention  it. 
One  evening,  not  long  after  his  return,  as 
Constance  sat  by  the  shaded  lamp  reading 
to  her  mother,  there  was  a  violent  pull  at 
the  door-bell.  Constance  knew  it  was  Gott- 
fried, and  laid  down  her  book  to  go  to  the 
door.  At  the  first  sight  of  his  face,  she 
divined  the  news  he  had  to  tell. 

"Mein  Liebchen,"  he  exclaimed,  catching 
her  rapturously  in  his  arms,  "  it  is  sold. 
And  at  such  a  price !  If  this  means  any- 


CASTLE-B  UILDING  2  7 

thing  for  the  future,  it  means  that  we  can 
be  married  before  long." 

Constance  blushed,  and,  drawing  herself 
from  his  arms,  led  him  out  to  her  mother's 
room  to  tell  the  good  news. 

"  Mr.  Robins  said  a  man  came  in  and 
asked  the  price  of  the  picture,"  he  began. 
"  Mr.  Robins  told  him  I  had  not  set  the 
price,  but  wished  to  negotiate  about  it  with 
any  one  that  cared  for  an  interview.  With 
that,  he  said,  the  man  drew  out  a  packet  of 
money  and  laid  it  on  the  counter.  '  Give 
him  that,'  he  said ;  '  and  if  he  is  not  satisfied, 
here  is  my  master's  card.  I  was  told  to  have 
the  picture  sent  home  at  once.'  When  Mr. 
Robins  opened  the  packet  and  saw  what  was 
in  it,  he  knew  I  would  not  refuse  the  offer ; 
so  he  had  the  painting  sent  to  the  address  on 
the  card." 

"And  who  was  the  purchaser?"  asked 
Constance  eagerly. 

"  Rex  Carrington  of  Figueroa  Street," 
said  Gottfried. 

"  It  must  be  one  of  the  newly  rich,  after 
all,"  laughed  Mrs.  Wilbur. 


28  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

"  He  is  —  what  do  you  call  it  ?  —  a  great 
swell,"  said  Gottfried.  "  I  have  never  seen 
him,  but  I  have  heard  of  him.  He  is  a 
young  man  and  immensely  rich." 

A  shade  of  annoyance  had  crossed  Con- 
stance's fair  face. 

"  I  don't  know,"  she  said  hesitatingly, 
"that  I  altogether  like  —  his  having  my 
picture." 

uEi!  that  is  so,"  cried  Gottfried  sud- 
denly. "  I  was  a  fool  to  paint  your  face  for 
another  man  to  look  at." 

"  Forgive  me,  Gottfried,"  said  Constance 
with  quick  contrition  ;  "  I  should  not  have 
spoken  so.  We  will  think  only  of  the  good 
fortune  that  has  come  to  you." 

With  that,  they  fell  to  castle-building 
again ;  and  Mrs.  Wilbur,  listening  to  their 
happy  chatter,  thought  with  a  stifled  sigh  of 
the  plans  she  had  formed  with  her  own 
lover  in  her  youth.  He  was  to  have  be- 
come a  great  writer ;  and  the  long  years  of 
poverty  and  disappointment  she  had  spent 
with  him  had  never  shaken  her  faith  in  his 


CASTLE-BUILDING  29 

genius.  But  with  Gottfried,  she  said  to  her- 
self, it  might  be  different;  and  Constance 
might  yet  realize  the  dreams  that  in  her  own 
life  had  been  unfulfilled. 

Gottfried  stayed  later  than  usual  that 
evening  and  tried  with  Constance  some  Ger- 
man songs  that  he  had  given  her.  As  he 
went  away  at  last,  they  stood  talking  a  mo- 
ment at  the  door,  and  their  fresh  young 
voices  reached  the  ears  of  the  two  dress- 
makers who  sat  patiently  stitching  in  the 
room  across  the  hall.  Emma,  who  was 
much  the  younger  of  the  two  and  was  still 
almost  pretty,  looked  up  at  her  sister  and 
smiled. 

"I  like  to  hear  their  voices,"  she  said; 
"  it  makes  me  think  of  the  times  when  Rob- 
ert used  to  come  to  see  me  and  the  happy 
days  before  he  died." 

Agnes,  who  had  never  had  a  lover,  sup- 
pressed a  sigh  of  envy  at  her  sister's  recol- 
lections, and  bent  lower  over  the  dress  that 
must  be  taken  home  the  next  day. 

"  Good-by,  mein  Liebchen.  good-by,"  whis- 


30  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

pered  Gottfried ;  -and  as  Constance  turned 
back  into  the  house,  Emma  Burroughs 
averted  her  face  that  her  sister  might  not 
see  the  sudden  tears  in  her  eyes. 


in 

BEX   CARRINGTON 

THE  house  of  Mrs.  Carrington  on  Figueroa 
Street  was  built  in  the  style  of  the  Kenais- 
sance,  with  tower,  domes,  and  many  gables. 
It  was  of  soft  red  stone,  with  wide  verandas 
and  little  balconies  in  unexpected  nooks, 
and  was  set  in  the  midst  of  extensive  grounds 
that  rose  in  low  terraces  from  the  wide  street. 
The  driveway  passed  under  an  open  porch 
at  the  side  of  the  house,  supported  by  Ionic 
pillars.  It  was  one  of  the  handsomest  and 
most  valuable  of  the  many  beautiful  resi- 
dences on  the  fashionable  street. 

The  adjoining  house  was  a  picturesque 
residence  built  in  imitation  of  a  French  cha- 
teau, and  was  occupied  by  a  German  baron 
and  his  wife,  who  were  passing  the  winter 
in  California  and  had  leased  the  house  of 
a  United  States  senator,  whose  family  had 


32  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

accompanied  him  to  Washington.  Mrs.  Car- 
rington  herself  was  the  widow  of  the  younger 
son  of  an  English  nobleman,  who  had  made 
his  fortune  on  Australian  sheep-ranches.  He 
had  retired  from  the  business  and  removed 
to  Los  Angeles  some  years  before  his  death. 
The  interior  of  the  elegant  house  he  had 
built  was  quite  in  keeping  with  its  external 
appearance.  A  broad  vestibule  floored  with 
marble  tiles,  the  niches  of  its  walls  filled 
with  marble  figures  and  busts,  opened 
through  curtained  archways  into  apartments 
furnished  variously  according  to  the  styles  of 
different  countries  and  epochs  of  history.  A 
drawing-room  in  the  style  of  Louis  XVI.  was 
separated  by  tapestry  portieres  from  an  Ori- 
ental apartment  furnished  with  rugs  and 
cushions  like  a  harem,  and  scented  with  the 
odors  of  sandal  wood  and  attar  of  roses.  A 
Japanese  boudoir,  its  walls  ornamented  with 
a  metal  fret-work  and  its  lacquer  tables 
and  ebony  cabinets  filled  with  bricabrac  of 
fine  pottery  and  hand-carved  ivory,  com- 
municated with  a  private  sitting-room  carved 


REX   CARRINGTON  33 

entirely  of  teak- wood,  its  tables  and  chairs 
supported  by  forms  of  dragons  and  beasts  of 
the  jungles.  A  large  banquet-room  was  pat- 
terned after  the  Roman  style  of  the  Augus- 
tan age,  low  cushioned  seats  being  substi- 
tuted for  couches  about  the  tables.  In  an 
adjoining  dining-room,  the  Swiss  hand-carved 
sideboard  was  crowded  with  Dutch  crockery 
and  Austrian  and  Bohemian  glass.  The 
walls,  too,  were  adorned  with  pictures 
formed  of  Dutch  tiles,  the  blue  and  white 
faces  staring  stonily  from  rural  environments 
of  the  same  impossible  colors ;  and  the  floor 
was  of  blue  and  white  tiles. 

In  the  centre  of  the  second  floor  was  a 
"  chamber  of  silence,"  with  padded  walls  and 
thickly  carpeted  floor,  where  no  sound  from 
the  adjoining  rooms  or  from  the  street  out- 
side could  enter ;  and  whose  pillowed  couches 
and  deeply  cushioned  chairs  invited  the  tired 
habitue  of  crowded  drawing-rooms  to  repose. 

On  every  hand,  in.  fin  de  siecle  style,  were 
to  be  seen  rare  works  of  art  and  fine  brica- 
brac  and  curios.  Portieres, —  some  tapes- 


34  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

try,  some  silk,  and  some  of  Japanese  beads 
in  rainbow  colors  —  when  drawn  back, 
showed  bewildering  vistas  of  diversely  fur- 
nished rooms,  multiplied  by  the  reflections 
of  long  mirrors  to  the  semblance  of  a  maze. 

Mrs.  Carringtou  sat  in  the  morning-room, 
waiting  for  breakfast  to  be  served.  She 
was  a  woman  past  middle  age,  tall  and  slen- 
der, with  clear-cut  features  and  a  haughty 
expression.  As  she  sat  waiting,  she  toyed 
impatiently  with  the  silken  tassel  of  her 
morning-gown.  Her  lips  were  compressed 
and  her  brows  were  gathered  together  in  a 
frown.  At  length  she  rose  and  touched  a 
beU. 

"  Send  Perkins  to  me,"  she  said  to  the 
servant  that  answered  the  summons. 

A  moment  later  the  man  appeared,  sleek, 
well-groomed,  obsequious. 

"  How  is  your  master  this  morning  ?  "  the 
lady  asked. 

"If  you  please,  ma'am,"  was  the  reply, 
"  I  don't  think  he  '11  be  down  this  morning. 
He  has  one  of  his  headaches  again." 


REX  CARRINGTON  35 

"  This  is  very  strange,  Perkins,"  was  the 
reply,  "  and  I  don't  like  it.  He  has  never 
remained  in  his  room  so  long  before.  I 
shall  insist  upon  seeing  him  if  he  does  not 
come  down  to  breakfast.  It  is  my  opinion 
that  he  requires  the  services  of  a  physician." 

"  I  beg  pardon,  ma'am,"  said  the  servant 
insinuatingly ;  "  but  no  one  could  expect 
a  lady  to  know  about  these  things.  The 
last  master  I  had  took  longer  than  Mr.  Rex 
to  get  over  the  effects  of  a  banquet." 

"  Do  not  mention  your  last  master  to  me, 
Perkins,"  said  the  lady  irritably ;  "  you 
know  he  was  nothing  but  the  son  of  a 
broker." 

"  But  if  you  will  only  be  patient,  ma'am," 
returned  the  servant,  "  Mr.  Rex  will  be  all 
right  in  a  day  or  two." 

"  I  shall  be  patient  no  longer,"  said  Mrs. 
Carrington,  rising  with  sudden  decision. 
"  I  am  going  to  see  my  son." 

With  a  quick  though  apologetic  move- 
ment, the  valet  interposed  himself  between 
her  and  the  door. 


36  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  I  beg  of  you,  I  implore  you,  not  to 
think  of  such  a  thing,"  he  said,  "  Mr.  Rex 
would  be  very  angry  when  he  knew ;  I 
should  lose  my  place.  And  you  would  not 
wish  to  see  him,  ma'am,  indeed  you  would 
not,"  he  added  persuasively.  "He  is  not 
like  himself,  and  it  would  not  be  pleasant 
for  you  to  remember." 

"  Nonsense,  Perkins,"  said  the  lady, 
endeavoring  to  pass  him.  "  Who  should 
know  the  weaknesses  of  a  man  if  not  his 
own  mother  ?  Stand  aside,  for  I  am  going 
to  see  him." 

The  perplexed  valet  looked  at  her  appeal- 
ingly,  but  she  was  inflexible. 

"  Let  me  at  least  go  up  and  prepare  him 
a  little,"  he  began,  seeking  to  gain  time. 

"  No,  I  do  not  wish  him  prepared,"  said 
Mrs.  Carrington.  "  I  wish  to  see  him  as 
he  is." 

"  But  I  beg  of  you,"  persisted  the  valet, 
about  to  fall  on  his  knees  in  his  excite- 
ment, "  I  beg  of  you  not  to  go." 

The  lady  made  an  imperative  gesture  for 


REX   CARRINGTON  37 

him  to  stand  aside,  and  had  already  lifted 
her  hand  toward  the  door,  when  a  bell  rang 
violently. 

"  That 's  Mr.  Rex  now,  ma'am,"  ex- 
claimed Perkins,  a  look  of  intense  relief 
crossing  his  face.  "  If  you  will  wait  a 
while  longer,  I  think  he  will  come  down  to 
breakfast."  As  Mrs.  Carrington  returned 
to  her  seat  by  the  window,  he  went  eagerly  to 
answer  his  master's  summons. 

As  the  valet  entered  the  room,  a  handsome 
young  man,  with  disheveled  dress  and  tum- 
bled hair,  rose  impatiently  from  his  couch. 

"  What 's  the  matter  with  you,  Per- 
kins ?  "  he  exclaimed  angrily.  "  Make  me 
a  cup  of  coffee ;  and  make  it  strong." 

"  When  did  you  come  in,  sir  ? "  asked 
the  servant.  "I  did  n't  know  "  — 

"  Stop  talking,  stupid,  and  be  quick  about 
the  coffee.  What  day  of  the  month  is  it?  " 
he  asked  suddenly. 

"  The  fifteenth,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Have  I  any  engagements  for  to-day, 
Perkins  ?  " 


38  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Yes,  sir,"  the  servant  answered  ;  "  the 
bicycle  ride  to  the  beach  with  the  baron 
and  baroness." 

"Have  I  missed  anything  of  impor- 
tance ?  " 

"  Yes,  Mr.  Rex,"  said  the  valet  a  little 
fearfully ;  "  Miss  Alicia's  reception  night 
before  last." 

"  By  thunder !  "  exclaimed  the  young  man, 
springing  up  and  beginning  to  pace  the 
room.  "  She  '11  show  that  beautiful  temper 
of  hers  the  next  time  I  see  her." 

"  If  you  please,  sir,"  interposed  the  valet, 
"  I  took  the  liberty  of  sending  her  word  you 
was  ill,  sir ;  and  she  sent  over  yesterday  to 
inquire  about  you." 

"You're  a  treasure,  Perkins,"  was  the 
reply.  "But  why  the  devil  don't  you  get" 
me  the  coffee  ?  "  he  added  irritably. 

The  servant  left  the  room,  and  Rex  Car- 
rington  continued  pacing  up  and  down  the 
floor. 

"  There 's  sure  to  be  a  row  with  the  old 
lady,"  he  mused,  "  and  a  hot  interview  with 


REX  CARRINGTON  39 

my  affectionate  fiancee.  If  it  were  not  for 
Perkins  to  look  after  me,  I  'd  never  get  out 
of  my  messes.  I  wonder  how  many  bottles 
I  drank  that  night,"  his  thoughts  went  on  ; 
"  it  was  deuced  fine  Burgundy." 

The  valet  reentered  with  a  cup  of  steam- 
ing black  coffee  on  a  tray.  Rex  seized  it 
eagerly  and  gulped  it  down.  His  brain 
cleared,  and  forgotten  recollections  rushed 
back  to  his  mind. 

"  Oh,  I  say,  Perkins,"  he  asked  care- 
lessly, as  he  set  the  cup  down  on  the  table 
beside  him,  "  did  you  find  the  address  of 
the  Madonna?" 

"No,  Mr.  Rex,"  was  the  reply;  "I 
did  n't." 

"  Confound  you,  Perkins,"  exclaimed  his 
master,  "  why  did  n't  you  ?  " 

"  Well,  Mr.  Rex,"  began  the  valet,  "  if 
Miss  Alicia  "  — 

"Miss  Alicia  be  ,"  exclaimed  the 

young  man  violently ;  "  what  has  Miss  Alicia 
to  do  with  it,  blockhead  ?  " 

"  If  she  should  hear  of  it,  sir  "  — 


40  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  And  how  is  she  to  hear  of  it,  if  you 
don't  take  it  into  your  meddlesome  head  to 
tell  her  ?  "  retorted  Rex.  "  Do  you  take  her 
for  my  confessor  ?  " 

"  But  the  last  time,  you  know,  sir,"  per- 
sisted the  servant. 

"  Silence  !  "  thundered  the  young  man  in 
a  fury.  "  Now  go,"  he  added  in  a  calmer 
voice,  "  and  get  me  the  address  at  once." 

"  But  your  toilet,  Mr.  Rex,"  Perkins  ob- 
jected. "  You  can't  go  down  to  breakfast 
till  you  have  changed,  and  your  mother  's 
expecting  you." 

"  You  're  right,  Perkins,"  said  the  young 
man  carelessly.  "  The  conventionalities  must 
be  observed,  even  if  affairs  of  state  have  to 
wait." 

An  hour  later,  when  he  had  breakfasted 
with  his  mother  and  placated  her  displeasure 
to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  had  dispatched 
Perkins  to  the  dealer's  on  Spring  Street,  he 
went  into  his  study  and  sat  down  before 
the  painting  of  the  Madonna.  The  lips 
smiled  at  him,  and  the  clear  blue  eyes  looked 


REX  CARRINGTON  41 

tranquilly  in  his.  A  soft  halo  hovered  over 
the  deep  gold  of  the  hair.  He  wondered 
if  the  model  could  be  as  beautiful  as  the 
painting. 

He  gazed  at  it  long,  and  something  new 
and  tender  stirred  in  his  selfish  heart. 

"  She  is  a  little  saint,"  he  said  softly, 
"  and  I  would  die  rather  than  harm  a  hair  of 
that  pretty  head.  What  I  want  to  get  her 
address  for  I  don't  understand.  It  could 
be  nothing  to  me  unless  I  meant  to  break 
with  Alicia."  And  as  he  thought  of  Alicia's 
proud,  cold  face,  his  heart  grew  hard  again. 

But  the  blue  eyes  of  the  picture  smiled  at 
him  with  strange  depths  of  tenderness,  and 
involuntarily  he  held  out  his  arms  toward 
the  canvas. 

"  My  darling,"  he  said  brokenly,  "  I  must 
find  you.  You,  and  you  alone,  can  make  a 
man  of  me."  * 


IV 

THE   SYMBOL 

THE  days  passed  happily  for  Constance. 
When  Gottfried  was  at  home  there  were  the 
daily  morning  greetings  at  the  studio  win- 
dow to  look  forward  to,  and  all  his  evenings 
he  passed  with  her.  If  he  chanced  to  be 
out  of  town,  still  she  had  the  memory  of  his 
words,  his  looks,  his  tones,  and  his  caresses 
to  ponder  over.  And  the  sweet  world-old 
dream  had  thrown  a  spell  over  the  earth,  — 
the  blue  of  the  sky,  the  soft  haze  that  lay 
over  the  mountains,  the  cool  salt  breeze  of 
the  afternoons,  the  very  streets  and  gardens, 
wore  a  different  aspect  to  her.  She  had 
stepped  into  a  world  of  enchantment ;  or 
rather,  she  told  herself,  she  had  been  asleep, 
and  he  was  the  fairy  prince  that  had  awak- 
ened her.  Could  it  be  the  same  old  work- 
aday world  in  which  she  had  suffered  and 


THE   SYMBOL  43 

toiled  and  grown  weary,  —  this  beautiful 
earth  with  its  perfect  days,  its  mornings  of 
hope  and  its  evenings  of  delight?  Could 
this  be  her  life,  once  so  dull  and  monoto- 
nous, through  whose  illumined  atmosphere 
she  looked  upon  her  beautiful  castles  in  the 
air? 

"Ah,"  she  sighed  sometimes,  pierced 
with  a  momentary  pain,  "if,  as  Gottfried 
once  said,  they  should  be  but  castles  by  the 
sea ! " 

But  she  turned  from  the  thought  and  fell 
to  dreaming  again. 

Evening  after  evening,  as  she  read  or  sang 
or  talked  with  her  lover,  or  walked  with  him 
in  silence  on  the  quiet  suburban  streets,  the 
moonlight  softening  the  outlines  of  gabled 
roofs  and  gardens  beautiful  with  pepper-trees 
and  palms,  she  felt  her  mind  expand  from 
contact  with  his  thoughts.  He  was  so  wise, 
so  noble,  so  true.  And  then  she  felt  a  thrill 
of  pride  that  she  possessed  the  gift  of  his 
love.  He  was  a  genius,  who  belonged  to  the 
world  and  to  the  future,  and  he  had  chosen 


44  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

her  to  make  his  happiness.  A  new  dignity 
and  sweetness  had  come  to  her  with  the  ex- 
perience ;  a  new  sign  and  seal  of  woman- 
hood. With  her  happiness  the  curves  of 
face  and  form  grew  softer,  the  delicate  color 
of  her  cheeks  deepened  in  more  frequent 
blushes,  and  the  light  laughter  rippled 
oftener  from  her  lips.  So  she  grew  daily 
more  bewitchingly  beautiful,  and  daily  the 
love  of  Gottfried  deepened  and  grew. 

They  sat  together  one  evening  in  a  wide 
seat  by  the  window,  she  leaning  against  him 
and  letting  him  play  with  her  slender  hands. 
They  were  silent,  as  they  often  were,  satis- 
fied to  be  together,  and  not  feeling  the  need 
of  speech.  But  at  last  Gottfried  broke  the 
silence. 

"  Why  do  you  wear  no  rings,  Constance  ?  " 
he  asked,  holding  up  the  little  pink  palm. 

She  gave  an  amused  laugh. 

"  Because  my  purse  cannot  afford  them," 
she  answered  lightly. 

"  I  am  glad  you  do  not  wear  them,"  her 
lover  replied,  "for  I  do  not  like  them. 


THE  SYMBOL  45 

There  are  so  many  legends  and  superstitions 
connected  with  rings  that  I  have  never 
wanted  to  give  you  one.  You  know  the 
song  of  '  The  MiU-Wheel ' :  - 

'  Sie  hat  ihr  Treue  gebrochen ; 
Das  Ringlein  sprang  entzwei.' 

If  I  gave  you  a  ring  and  any  accident  be- 
fell it,  I  should  have  a  superstitious  feeling 
that  our  love  was  doomed.  But  more  than 
that,"  he  went  on,  "  I  have  read  somewhere 
that  the  ring  was  an  ancient  symbol  of 
slavery,  indicating  by  its  encircling  band  the 
power  that  held  the  wearer  in  a  bond  of  ser- 
vitude. From  this  idea,  the  betrothal  ring 
came  to  indicate  the  possession  of  the  woman 
by  the  man.  So  I  have  felt  that  I  could 
not  humiliate  you  and  degrade  our  love  by 
placing  a  ring  on  your  finger.  Are  you 
sorry,  mein  Liebchen  ?  Have  you  perhaps 
wanted  one  and  wondered  why  I  did  not 
give  it  to  you  ?  " 

She  had  indeed  wanted  some  tangible  evi- 
dence of  their  love  that  she  might  carry 
with  her  and  look  at  and  touch,  especially 


46  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

when  he  was  away,  to  assure  herself  that  her 
happiness  was  not  all  a  dream.  But  she 
would  not  hurt  him  by  admitting  the  fact. 

"  It  is  enough  to  have  your  love,"  she  said 
softly,  as  she  nestled  her  head  on  his  shoul- 
der. 

"But  see,  mein  Liebchen"  he  went  on, 
drawing  a  little  packet  from  his  pocket  and 
untying  the  cord ;  "  I  did  not  forget  you.  I 
wanted  you  to  have  something  that  would 
be  a  symbol  of  our  love." 

She  leaned  forward  expectantly  as  he  un- 
wrapped the  package  and  lifted  from  a  cush- 
ioned box  a  Trilby  locket  suspended  on  a 
slender  silver  chain.  The  locket  itself  was 
of  frosted  silver  and  set  in  the  centre  with  a 
pearl. 

"  See,"  he  said ;  "  it  is  shaped  like  a 
heart ;  why  should  it  not  remind  you  that 
you  carry  my  heart  with  you  wherever  you 
go?  And  in  the  centre  of  the  heart  is  a 
pearl,  to  tell  you  of  my  truth  and  loyalty." 

"It  is  beautiful,  Gottfried,"  she  said, 
taking  it  in  her  hand ;  "  and  the  idea,  too, 


THE  SYMBOL  47 

is  beautiful.  I  shall  prize  it  much  more 
than  a  ring." 

"  Open  it,  mein  Liebchen,"  he  said. 

She  did  so,  and  gave  a  little  cry  of  plea- 
sure, for  the  face  of  Gottfried  looked  out  at 
her  with"  serene  and  tender  eyes.  She  looked 
at  the  tinted  miniature  a  moment,  then 
pressed  it  to  her  lips. 

"No,  mein  Licbchen,  no,"  her  lover 
laughed ;  "  I  will  take  that  on  my  own 
lips." 

When  he  had  made  good  his  words  he 
slipped  the  chain  over  her  head,  and  she  sat 
with  the  locket  clasped  in  her  palm. 

"You  see,"  he  laughed,  "how  you  hold 
my  heart  in  your  hand." 

"  And  in  my  heart  as  well,"  she  answered 
solemnly. 


A    CHALLENGE 

ONE  evening,  several  weeks  after  the  sale 
of  the  painting,  Gottfried  told  Constance  he 
was  to  meet  the  purchaser  at  the  dealer's  at 
eight  o'clock. 

"  So  I  shall  have  to  leave  you  early  to- 
night," he  said  ;  "  but  to-morrow  I  may  have 
good  news  to  tell  you."  For  they  had  both 
been  dreaming  of  future  orders. 

She  stood  at  the  door  watching  him  as  he 
went  away.  He  turned  at  the  gate  and 
lifted  his  hat,  then  walked  briskly  down  the 
street. 

The  evening  was  warm  for  the  time  of 
year,  and  the  scent  of  orange  blossoms  was 
in  the  air.  The  electric  light  shone  through 
the  pepper-trees,  casting  weird  shadows  on 
the  sidewalk.  Gottfried  walked  several 
blocks  down  the  quiet  street,  past  his  studio 


A    CHALLENGE  49 

and  the  house  where  Constance  had  left  him 
the  day  of  their  first  meeting ;  and  at  the 
next  corner  took  the  electric  car  into  the 
city.  His  thoughts  dwelt  speculatively  on  the 
message  he  had  received.  Rex  Carrington's 
man,  the  same  that  had  purchased  the  pic- 
ture, had  gone  to  the  store  a  few  days  be- 
fore and  left  word  that  his  master  wished  to 
see  the  painter  of  the  Madonna,  and  would 
be  at  the  dealer's  for  that  purpose  at  eight 
o'clock  Saturday  evening.  He  was  sure  to- 
day was  Saturday,  for  he  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  speak  of  it  incidentally  before 
Constance,  lest  his  memory  should  play  him 
one  of  its  unaccountable  tricks,  and  she  had 
made  no  comment.  He  felt  certain  the 
young  man  wanted  to  order  another  picture ; 
perhaps  he  wanted  to  sit  for  his  own  por- 
trait. His  example  would  surely  bring  other 
patrons ;  and  visions  of  success  and  pros- 
perity, with  Constance  as  the  central  figure 
of  his  dreams,  made  his  heart  beat  fast  and 
his  dark  eyes  glow  with  suppressed  excite- 
ment. 


60  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

He  changed  cars,  and  after  a  brief  ride 
alighted  again,  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  The 
streets  were  noisy  with  the  rush  of  cars  and 
the  rattling  of  late  delivery  wagons;  the 
sidewalks  were  crowded  with  pedestrians. 
He  walked  a  short  distance,  looking  in  at 
the  brilliantly  lighted  windows,  and  in  a  few 
moments  entered  the  dealer's,  just  as  the 
hand  of  the  clock  pointed  to  eight. 

Mr.  Robins,  a  fair,  bland  man  of  middle 
age,  walked  up  behind  the  counter  and 
nodded  familiarly. 

"  You  're  in  time,  I  see,"  he  remarked. 

Gottfried  assented. 

"  Do  you  know,"  he  said,  "  what  Mr.  Car- 
rington  wanted  to  see  me  for  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't,"  answered  the  dealer  ;  "  but 
I  have  a  pretty  strong  suspicion  ;  for  his 
man  was  in  the  other  day  asking  for  the  ad- 
dress of  the  model  of  your  picture,  which  I 
am  glad  to  say  I  was  unable  to  give  him." 

Gottfi-ied  flushed,  and  a  look  of  unaccus- 
tomed anger  flashed  in  his  eyes,  changing 
completely  the  expression  of  his  face. 


A    CHALLENGE  51 

"  Why  does  he  want  to  know  that  ?  "  he 
cried  with  suppressed  excitement. 

The  dealer  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"It  is  not  for  me  to  say,"  he  replied; 
"  but  if  the  lady  is  a  friend  of  yours,  I 
would  advise  you  not  to  give  her  address  to 
Rex  Carrington." 

"  You  know  him,  then  ?  "  asked  Gottfried 
quickly. 

"  Only  by  reputation,"  was  the  reply ; 
"  but  that  is  enough." 

Gottfried  paced  once  or  twice  the  length 
of  the  store,  then  stopped  before  the  dealer 
with  forced  composure. 

"  Yes,"  he  said ;  "  I  will  haf  patience ;  I 
will  wait  for  him  ;  and  when  he  comes,  I  will 
appoint  a  meeting  and  I  will  fight  him  ;  it 
is  a  German  duel  I  will  fight  him,  with 
swords." 

In  his  excitement,  the  elegance  of  English 
he  had  striven  so  hard  to  acquire  was  for- 
gotten. 

The  dealer  was  surprised  at  his  vehe- 
mence, and,  fearing  trouble  for  himself,  tried 


52  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

to  calm  the  storm  he  had  raised.  It  would 
be  very  unpleasant  if  an  altercation  should 
take  place  on  his  premises.  Occasionally  a 
customer  came  in  and  occupied  his  attention ; 
the  young  artist  paced  up  and  down  the 
room,  or  gazed  moodily  out  of  the  window. 

The  minute  hand  passed  slowly  around 
the  face  of  the  clock,  and  still  Gottfried 
waited,  but  in  vain. 

"  He  is  a  coward,"  he  said ;  "  a  black- 
hearted coward.  He  is  afraid  to  come." 

"  He  has  probably  been  detained  unex- 
pectedly," said  Mr.  Eobins  quietly.  "He 
will  doubtless  send  you  apologies  to-mor- 
row." 

But  Gottfried  would  not  listen  to  the  ex- 
planation. 

"  He  is  afraid,"  he  reiterated.  "  But  if 
he  thinks  to  draw  back  from  the  meeting 
now,  he  does  not  know  with  whom  he  has  to 
deal.  I  shall  learn  what  it  is  he  wants.  I 
shall  pay  well  attention  to  him,"  slipping 
in  his  speech  in  his  anger.  "  He  need  not 
think  he  will  escape  so  easily." 


A    CHALLENGE  53 

Again  the  dealer  regretted  his  indiscre- 
tion in  making  the  suggestion  that  had  so 
enraged  the  artist.  But  who  would  have 
thought,  he  reflected,  that  so  quiet  a  man 
would  work  himself  into  a  passion  over  an 
uncertainty  ? 

Gottfried  went  away  reluctantly  when  it 
was  time  to  close  the  shop,  leaving  vehement 
messages  which  the  dealer  had  no  intention 
of  delivering. 

The  next  day,  hearing  nothing  from  his 
patron,  Gottfried  sent  a  peremptory  note  to 
the  house  on  Figueroa  Street,  containing 
the  challenge  he  had  threatened.  The  mes- 
sage was  answered  by  Perkins  to  the  effect 
that  his  master  was  out  of  town  for  an  inde- 
finite period.  The  note  itself  Perkins  care- 
fully unsealed  and  read  ;  sealing  it  again  in 
case  it  should  be  called  for,  but  determining 
at  the  same  time  that  he  would  keep  it  from 
his  master  if  possible. 

"  It  's  just  as  I  knew  it  would  be,"  he 
grumbled.  "  He  is  n't  out  of  one  scrape  till 
he 's  neck-deep  in  another.  He  's  got  a  hot- 


54  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

headed  Dutchman  to  deal  with  this  time, 
and  no  mistake.  He  's  sure  to  fight  if  he 
gets  this  challenge,  and  drag  me  into  the 
trouble  some  way  —  have  me  arrested,  like 
as  not.  His  mother  and  Miss  Alicia  will 
blame  me,  too,  if  anything  happens.  Look 
here,  Perkins,  you're  in  the  worst  hole 
you  've  been  in  yet,  but  so  is  Mr.  Rex  ;  and 
if  you  pull  him  through  this  all  right,  you 
ought  to  get  something  handsome  for  it." 

In  the  mean  time,  Gottfried  had  to  evade 
the  questions  Constance  put  to  him,  and  to 
comfort  her  for  the  evident  disappointment 
she  felt  that  he  had  not  received  an  order 
for  another  picture. 

But  as  time  went  on,  orders  began  to  come 
in  to  him,  and  he  worked  assiduously,  find- 
ing his  models  chiefly  in  the  Spanish  quarter 
of  the  city,  and  along  the  beaches.  He  re- 
fused to  let  Constance  pose  for  him  again, 
but  he  was  engaged  on  a  portrait  of  her  for 
himself.  He  painted  her  in  a  white  dress, 
with  puffed  elbow  sleeves  and  V  neck,  and 
with  La  France  roses  in  her  lap  and  in  her 


A    CHALLENGE  55 

hair.  In  the  sweet  naturalness  of  the  posi- 
tion and  the  bright,  glad  look  of  the  face, 
the  portrait  seemed  to  him  more  human  and 
so  more  beautiful  than  the  Madonna.  He 
placed  the  canvas  so  that  he  might  see  the 
face  when  he  first  opened  his  eyes  in  the 
morning ;  and  at  night  before  he  fell  asleep, 
it  smiled  at  him,  lit  up  with  the  faint 
white  radiance  of  the  electric  light  that 
shone  through  the  studio  window.  It  al- 
most seemed  to  him  sometimes  that  it  was 
her  actual  presence,  the  face  was  so  full  of 
joy  and  tenderness. 

The  painting  was  a  delightful  pretext  for 
the  continuance  of  the  long  hours  they  had 
spent  in  the  studio  together ;  and  when  he 
had  finished  the  face,  he  lingered  over  the 
details  of  the  draperies,  reluctant  to  give 
up  the  pleasure  of  the  sittings.  At  last, 
Constance  could  not  fail  to  notice  it. 

"  I  believe  you  are  more  interested  in  my 
dress  than  in  my  face,"  she  said  archly ; 
"  you  are  spending  ever  so  much  more  time 
on  it." 


56  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  I  will  go  back  to  the  face  and  retouch 
it,"  he  said.  "  And  yet,  I  don't  believe  I 
can  make  it  more  perfect  than  it  is." 

There  was  no  egotism  in  the  words ;  he 
was  not  thinking  of  the  perfection  of  the 
work,  but  only  of  the  beauty  of  the  woman 
he  loved. 

In  addition  to  his  painting,  Gottfried  was 
doing  some  black  and  white  work  for  period- 
icals, but  nothing  of  a  definite  kind.  He 
might  have  obtained  a  salaried  position  that 
would  have  settled  for  him  the  troublesome 
financial  question  and  enabled  him  to  marry 
at  once  ;  but  his  frequent  and  irregular  ab- 
sences rendered  this  impossible.  They  inter- 
fered also  with  his  retaining  the  pupils  that 
had  come  to  him  ;  but  there  were  some  that 
were  loyal  to  him,  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  it  was  no  unusual  experience  for  them 
to  go  to  the  studio  and  find  it  empty.  On 
these  occasions  the  landlady  could  give  no 
information  as  to  his  whereabouts  ;  he  never 
left  word  or  made  any  explanation  of  his  ab- 
sence. Even  to  Constance  he  did  not  speak 


A    CHALLENGE  57 

of  the  matter,  and  since  the  first  instance, 
she  had  not  ventured  to  refer  to  it  herself. 
It  is  true  that  she  trusted  him  and  believed 
that  in  time  he  would  explain  everything  to 
her;  but  more  than  once  she  was  anxious 
and  disturbed  by  his  sudden  and  unexpected 
departure.  His  absences  were  rendered  the 
more  inexplicable  by  the  fact  that,  as  far  as 
she  knew,  he  had  few  acquaintances  and  no 
friends  ;  and  he  did  not  seem  to  gather  any 
material  for  work,  for  he  never  showed  her 
any  sketches  that  could  have  been  made 
while  he  was  away.  Another  peculiarity 
that  she  had  noticed  more  than  once  was 
that  upon  his  return  his  English  was  more 
broken  than  usual,  as  though  he  had  been 
speaking  German  in  his  absence.  A  day  or 
two,  however,  sufficed  to  give  him  the  easy 
command  of  English  he  had  so  marvelously 
acquired  in  the  few  months  of  their  acquaint- 
ance. 

So  the  winter  passed  with  its  rains  ;  and 
the  transient  green  of  the  hills  began  to 
give  place  to  the  browns  and  yellows  and 


58  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

golds  of  the  summer,  hung  in  the  distance 
with  violet  and  purple  mists.  In  the  city 
constant  irrigation  had  kept  the  gardens 
green  and  beautiful ;  and  Constance  herself 
had  carefully  tended  the  little  grass-plot, 
shaded  with  its  symmetrical  pepper-tree  and 
brightened  with  its  tall  geraniums  and  fuch- 
sias. 

Gottfried  had  tried  repeatedly  to  see  Rex 
Carrington  ;  and  that  young  gentleman  him- 
self had  left  more  than  one  message  for 
Gottfried  at  the  dealer's ;  but  so  far  they 
had  failed  to  meet.  Notwithstanding  the 
efforts  of  Perkins  to  keep  his  master  out  of 
trouble,  Gottfried  had  at  length  succeeded 
in  sending  a  challenge,  which  Rex  had  inso- 
lently accepted.  He  had  declared  it  beneath 
the  dignity  of  a  gentleman  to  meet  on  terms 
of  equality  a  low-bred  German  dauber  in 
paints  ;  but  he  wanted  to  show  his  adver- 
sary that  his  countrymen  were  not  the  only 
men  that  could  wield  a  sword.  His  pride 
and  the  contempt  he  felt  for  his  antagonist 
had  prevented  him  from  denying  the  unjust 


A   CHALLENGE  59 

imputations  of  the  latter ;  but  he  was  deter- 
mined more  than  ever  to  win  the  beautiful 
girl,  who  had  posed  for  the  Madonna,  away 
from  the  painter,  who  was  evidently  her 
lover,  and  whom  he  denominated  a  cad. 

When  Gottfried  had  read  the  acceptance 
of  his  challenge,  which  Mrs.  Flannigan  had 
handed  him  one  morning  as  he  entered  the 
house,  he  began  to  pace  his  studio  in  deep 
thought.  He  had  written  impetuously  and 
had  not  considered  the  difficulty  of  securing 
a  second ;  and  for  some  time  no  one  oc- 
curred to  him  of  whom  he  would  dare  to  ask 
the  dangerous  favor.  He  smiled  as  he  men- 
tally ran  over  the  list  of  his  acquaintances ; 
Mr.  Robins,  the  dealer,  the  few  patrons»he 
knew  personally,  and  the  fathers  of  several 
of  his  pupils  ;  most  of  the  latter  engaged  in 
business.  Their  quiet  respectability  would 
be  deeply  shocked  at  the  mere  suggestion  of 
a  duel ;  and  as  for  a  man  with  a  family  and 
a  reputation  to  keep  up  in  the  community, 
he  knew  it  would  be  useless  to  dream  of 
such  a  thing.  But  at  a  sudden  thought,  his 


60  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

face  brightened,  and  seizing  his  hat  he 
rushed  out  upon  the  street. 

It  was  nearly  noon  when  he  entered  a 
quiet  coffee-house  a  Kttle  beyond  the  busi- 
ness centre  of  the  city,  and  sat  down  at  a 
table  near  the  door.  He  ordered  a  steak 
and  a  glass  of  beer  ;  but  even  after  they  ap- 
peared, he  seemed  more  interested  in  watch- 
ing the  people  that  entered  the  place  than 
in  devoting  himself  to  his  modest  meal. 

He  had  not  long  to  wait  before  a  young 
man  came  in  and  made  his  way  to  the  table 
at  which  Gottfried  sat  alone. 

"Wie  geht's"  he  said  carelessly,  as  he 
dropped  into  a  seat  and  duplicated  Gott- 
fried's order. 

Gottfried  returned  the  greeting  with  a 
smile.  The  newcomer  was  a  young  German, 
apparently  about  thirty,  with  a  frank,  blond 
face  and  a  fine,  broad  figure.  He  began  to 
speak  rapidly  in  German. 

"  What 's  the  matter  with  you  to-day  ?  " 
he  said.  "  You  look  as  though  you  were  in 
trouble." 


A    CHALLENGE  61 

"  So  I  am,"  answered  Gottfried  ;  "  and  if 
I  did  not  think  it  presumption  to  trouble  a 
stranger  with  my  private  affairs,  I  would 
tell  you  about  it." 

"Strangers?"  said  the  other  heartily. 
"  What  of  that  ?  We  are  countrymen." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Gottfried ;  "  but  even 
so,  I  feel  that  I  have  no  claim  upon  you. 
We  have  met  here  three  or  four  times  in  the 
most  casual  way ;  and  we  do  not  even  know 
each  other's  names." 

"  That  is  soon  remedied,"  said  his  com- 
panion with  a  laugh.  "  I  am  Heinrich 
Dierssen,  recently  a  student  and  from  the 
city  of  Berlin;  but  now,  a  Los  Angeles 
doctor  without  patients." 

"  A  doctor  !  "  exclaimed  Gottfried  ;  "  so 
much  the  better.  But  I,"  he  went  on,  "  I 
too  am  from  the  Fatherland.  I  am  Gott- 
fried Jager,  painter  and  teacher,  with  a  few 
pupils  and  a  few  patrons,  one  of  whom  has 
gotten  me  into  trouble." 

"If  I  can  render  you  any  assistance," 
said  Dierssen,  setting  down  his  glass  and 


62  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

looking  at  his  companion  with  frank  blue 

eyes,  "  I  shall  be  happy  to  do  so." 

Then  Gottfried  told  him  his  trouble,  as 
briefly  and  clearly  as  possible,  at  the  same 
time  warning  him  of  the  danger  of  the  en- 
terprise. To  Heiurich  Dierssen,  who  was  so 
recently  from  a  German  university  and  who 
carried  on  his  person  more  than  one  mark 
of  the  sword,  the  American  prejudice  against 
dueling  was  inexplicable. 

He  was  deeply  interested  in  as  much  of 
the  artist's  grievance  as  he  had  divulged  to 
him,  and  correspondingly  indignant  with  the 
young  aristocrat  who  had  not  denied  the  ac- 
cusations that  Gottfried  had  made  against 
him. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  serve  you,"  he  said, 
extending  his  hand  to  Gottfried  across  the 
table.  "  Leave  the  arrangements  to  me  and 
to  Carrington's  second." 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  tell  you,"  said  Gott- 
fried uneasily,  "  that  for  the  sake  of  secrecy 
he  wishes  his  valet  to  act  as  second.  Per- 
haps you  will  not  care  to  confer  with  him." 


A    CHALLENGE  63 

"  It  does  not  matter,"  said  Dierssen  with 
a  shrug ;  "  I  recognize  the  difficulties  of  the 
case." 

After  some  delay,  caused  by  the  absence 
of  Rex  Carrington  from  home,  Perkins 
called  at  the  office  of  Heinrich  Dierssen, 
and  the  arrangements  were  duly  made.  The 
place  appointed  for  the  meeting  was  on  the 
beach  beyond  Redondo;  and  the  time  set, 
early  in  the  morning,  when  there  would  be 
least  danger  of  disturbance. 

As  Perkins  returned  home,  his  heart  sank 
and  his  knees  trembled  and  almost  knocked 
together  in  the  darkness. 

"  I  'm  sure  I  don't  know  how  this  scrape 
will  end,"  he  muttered.  "  He  may  save  his 
own  neck  from  the  gallows  with  his  money, 
but  I  'm  not  so  sure  about  mine." 

Suddenly  he  seemed  struck  with  a  happy 
thought.  He  slapped  his  knee  and  laughed 
softly  to  himself. 

"  I  '11  do  it,"  he  muttered,  as  he  entered 
the  grounds  of  his  master's  house.  "  He  '11 
never  resist  sampling  the  new  case  of  cham- 


64  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

pagne  that  came  to-day.  He  '11  be  in  a  rage 
with  me  if  he  finds  out  I  thought  of  it,  but 
I  '11  get  out  of  it  some  way." 

As  the  brief  days  of  waiting  passed,  Gott- 
fried could  scarcely  realize  that  he  could  be 
so  beside  himself  with  anger  ;  but  when  he 
looked  at  the  sweet,  pure  face  of  Constance, 
and  thought  of  the  life  of  a  man  like  Rex 
Carrington,  the  blood  leaped  like  fire 
through  his  veins  and  his  hands  clenched 
till  he  felt  the  nails  in  the  flesh.  However, 
he  did  not  mean  to  slay  his  antagonist ;  but 
only  to  give  him  a  wound  that  would  teach 
him  that  Constance  was  not  unprotected. 
To  the  skill  in  fencing  that  he  possessed,  he 
had  added  a  certain  practical  knowledge  of 
anatomy  ;  so  that  he  felt  confident  that  he 
could  inflict  a  blow  that  should  be  severe 
but  not  fatal. 

In  order  to  escape  the  danger  of  subse- 
quent detection,  Gottfried  and  his  new 
friend  did  not  go  to  Redondo  Beach  the 
evening  before  the  day  that  had  been  set, 
but  drove  out  before  daybreak.  In  addition 


A    CHALLENGE  65 

to  his  duties  as  second,  Dierssen  was  to  act 
as  surgeon ;  and  he  had  provided  himself 
with  lint  and  bandages  and  a  case  of  instru- 
ments. 

The  two  men  drove  through  the  yet  silent 
town  and  found  the  place  on  the  beach  that 
had  been  agreed  upon,  just  as  the  light  of 
day  began  to  struggle  through  the  heavy 
morning  mists.  The  air  was  chill,  and  the 
sea,  shrouded  in  fog,  rolled  heavily  and 
monotonously  on  the  beach.  Dierssen  looked 
at  his  watch  and  announced  that  they  were 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  ahead  of  time. 

"  Carrington  probably  came  up  last  night 
and  stopped  at  the  hotel,"  said  Gottfried ; 
"  so  he  will  doubtless  be  on  time." 

"Yes,  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  he 
has  made  himself  comfortable,"  was  the  re- 

Pty- 

They  spoke  in  German,  Gottfried  finding 
it  a  relief  in  his  state  of  tense  excitement. 

Little  by  little  the  fog  cleared,  and  the 
sun  came  out,  silvering  the  surface  of  the 
sea,  and  falling  with  grateful  warmth  on  the 


66  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

stretch  of  wet  sand  where  the  friends  impa- 
tiently waited. 

As  the  time  approached,  Gottfried  stood 
with  his  watch  open  in  his  hand.  But  the 
hour  passed  and  his  antagonist  did  not 
come.  As  moment  after  moment  went  by 
and  he  did  not  appear,  Gottfried's  impa- 
tience gave  place  to  angry  scorn. 

"  He  is  a  coward,  he  is  afraid  to  come," 
he  muttered. 

"  It  is  just  possible,"  said  his  cooler  com- 
panion, "that  he  did  not  understand  the 
exact  place  we  were  to  meet.  He  may  have 
stopped  the  other  side  of  the  town." 

On  this  suggestion,  he  left  Gottfried  to 
keep  watch  at  the  appointed  place,  and 
drove  through  the  town  and  along  the  beach, 
but  without  success.  When  he  returned  at 
last,  Gottfried  was  still  alone. 

Another  hour  passed,  and  the  patience  of 
the  friends  had  become  exhausted. 

.  "  It  is  of  no  use  to  wait  any  longer,"  said 
Dierssen  at  last ;  "  but  as  we  drive  through 
town  we  might  stop  at  the  hotel  and  inquire 
for  him." 


A    CHALLENGE  67 

So  it  happened  that  while  Gottfried  sat 
in  the  buggy  and  waited  for  his  friend,  the 
latter  went  up  to  the  hotel  and  sought  the 
clerk. 

"  Is  Mr.  Eex  Carrington  here  ? "  he  in- 
quired. 

"  Mr.  Rex  Carrington,  of  Los  Angeles  ?  " 
was  the  smiling  rejoinder. 

Dierssen  assented. 

"  No,  he  is  not.  If  he  was  expecting  to 
come,  he  may  be  up  to-day.  Will  you  come 
again,  or  do  you  wish  to  leave  any  word  for 
him?" 

"Tell  him,"  was  the  reply,  "that  Gott- 
fried Jager  was  here,  and  was  surprised  that 
he  has  not  come." 

As  Heinrich  Dierssen  passed  out,  he  found 
the  long  veranda  facing  the  sea  already  oc- 
cupied by  the  usual  groups  of  young  women 
in  shirt-waists  and  sailor  hats,  and  young 
men  in  flannel  outing-suits,  who  looked  up 
from  their  papers  or  stopped  their  chatter 
among  themselves  to  stare  a  little  curiously 
at  his  stalwart  figure  and  handsome  blond 
face.  The  beach,  too,  was  beginning  to  show 


68  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

the  morning  activities  of  bathers  and  fishing- 
parties  ;  and  the  sleepy  little  town  was  wak- 
ing to  its  customary  holiday  air. 

The  young  man  rejoined  his  companion 
in  the  buggy,  and  they  drove  back  to  Los 
Angeles. 

On  his  return  to  his  studio,  Gottfried 
found  a  note  from  Perkins,  saying  that  his 
master  was  out  of  town  on  imperative  busi- 
ness and  had  been  unable  to  keep  the  ap- 
pointment of  that  morning.  Gottfried  sent 
a  note  to  be  delivered  to  Carrington  on  his 
return,  stigmatizing  him  as  a  coward  and 
declaring  that  he  deserved  to  be  shot  down 
in  the  street.  The  wily  Perkins,  having  un- 
sealed and  read  the  note,  concealed  it ;  and 
several  days  later  explained  to  his  master 
that  the  night  before  the  appointed  time  the 
painter  had  sent  apologies  and  withdrawn  the 
challenge. 

"  I  'm  going  to  see  about  this  myself,  Per- 
kins," the  irate  young  man  exclaimed ;  "  I 
believe,  you  coward,  you  made  me  drunk  so 
I  could  n't  keep  my  appointment."  And  in 
this  surmise  he  was  not  mistaken. 


VI 

MOUNT    LOWE 

IT  was  almost  midsummer  when  Gottfried 
first  seriously  thought  of  taking  a  trip  to 
Mount  Lowe. 

"  I  should  like  to  stay  two  or  three  days 
and  make  a  number  of  sketches,"  he  said 
one  evening  as  he  sat  in  Mrs.  Wilbur's  sit- 
ting-room ;  "  but  I  am  afraid  that  I  cannot 
afford  more  than  a  day  at  the  Echo  Moun- 
tain House.  I  could  get  material  for  half  a 
dozen  pictures  in  that  time,  and  I  think  they 
would  sell." 

"  But  I  don't  like  to  have  you  go,"  said 
the  girl ;  "  you  have  just  been  away  several 
weeks,  you  know." 

Gottfried  started,  but  instantly  controlled 
himself. 

"  But  why  can't  you  go  too,  mein  Lieb- 
chen  ?  "  he  said.  "  We  will  make  up  a  little 


70  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

party.  I  will  ask  Heinrich  Dierssen  to  go 
and  take  his  mother  to  chaperon  you.  She 
cannot  speak  English,  but  you  can  talk  Ger- 
man with  her.  She  is  the  dearest  old  lady 
in  the  world.  You  know  I  do  not  consider 
you  old,  Mrs.  Wilbur,"  he  added,  turning  to 
the  invalid  who  lay  on  the  couch  watching 
the  two  bright  young  faces  with  a  smile. 

"  That  will  be  lovely,"  cried  Constance, 
with  flushed  cheeks  and  eyes  bright  with  ex- 
citement. "  But  will  Mrs.  Dierssen  go,  and 
what  shall  I  do  about  mamma?  " 

"  I  will  be  all  right,"  said  that  lady  em- 
phatically. "  I  will  ask  Agnes  Burroughs  to 
look  in  once  in  a  while,  and  you  might  ask 
Emma  to  go  with  you.  She  has  not  been 
well  lately,  and  the  trip  would  do  her  good." 

"  Poor  Emma,"  said  Constance  ;  "  I  will 
ask  her.  I  don't  believe  she  ever  gets  an 
outing." 

And  so  the  matter  was  arranged. 

It  was  a  beautiful  but  warm  afternoon 
when  the  little  party  of  five  left  the  Los  An- 
geles station  behind  them  and  the  train  swept 


MOUNT  LOWE  71 

out  above  the  empty  bed  of  the  Los  Angeles 
river  and  followed  the  curve  of  the  road  to- 
ward Pasadena.  Long  before  they  reached 
the  town,  Gottfried,  pointing  through  the 
open  window,  showed  them  the  Echo  Moun- 
tain House  perched  half-way  up  the  moun- 
tain-slope, that  rose  bare  and  brown  in  the 
sunlight. 

"  But,  Gottfried,"  expostulated  Constance 
in  a  tone  of  disappointment,  "  that  does  not 
look  so  very  high." 

"Thirty-five  hundred  feet,"  he  replied. 
"  Wait  till  we  are  at  the  foot  of  the  Cable 
Incline ;  it  will  seem  higher  then." 

They  skirted  the  picturesque  town  of  Pas- 
adena, with  its  beautiful  churches  and  hand- 
some residences,  and  went  on  to  Altadena, 
the  mountain  looming  nearer  and  the  hotel 
and  the  observatory  a  little  farther  up  seem- 
ing to  rise  away  from  them  and  creep  far- 
ther up  the  mountain-slope. 

"  I  believe  you  are  right,  Gottfried,"  Con- 
stance admitted ;  and  her  disappointment 
began  to  give  place  to  a  slowly  growing 
wonder. 


72  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Have  you  made  the  Hartz-journey  ?  " 
asked  Heinrich,  turning  to  Gottfried. 

"Yes,  a  long  time  ago,"  was  the  reply. 
"  The  details  are  a  little  blurred  in  my  mem- 
ory ;  but  I  know  that  it  verified  the  descrip- 
tion of  Heine's  Harzreise,  although  even 
that  is  not  fresh  in  my  mind." 

"I  went  last  year  with  a  party  of  stu- 
dents," Dierssen  went  on.  "  I  imagine  we 
won't  do  much  climbing  this  trip." 

"  Only  by  cable  and  electricity,"  said 
Gottfried ;  "  unless,"  he  added  laughing, 
"you  want  to  take  one  of  the  saddle  ani- 
mals they  advertise." 

At  Altadena  they  changed  to  the  electric 
cars,  Constance  insisting  upon  sitting  on  the 
front  seat  with  the  milk-cans  and  baskets  of 
freshly  laundered  clothes  that  were  on  their 
way  to  the  Echo  Mountain  House. 

"I  want  to  get  the  best  view  possible," 
she  explained. 

She  was  in  high  spirits,  and  presented  to 
Gottfried  a  new  phase  of  her  nature  that 
was  charming  to  him. 


MOUNT  LOWE  73 

Soon  they  reached  the  little  station  at 
Rubio  Canon.  They  alighted  in  front  of 
the  pavilion,  the  road  by  which  they  had 
just  come  curving  away  to  the  left.  To  the 
right  stretched  Rubio  Canon,  narrow  and 
shut  in  with  high,  precipitous  walls.  In 
front  of  them  rose  the  mountain,  its  rugged 
and  steep  incline  marked  by  the  double 
line  of  the  cable ;  at  its  foot  stood  the  White 
Chariot,  arranged  in  three  tiers  of  seats,  and 
entered  by  steps  that  led  up  to  it  on  either 
side  of  the  track. 

The  passengers  from  the  electric  car 
crowded  into  their  places,  Gottfried  and  his 
party  sitting  in  the  highest  division,  and 
facing  the  canon,  the  better  to  see  the  pano- 
rama that  was  to  be  unrolled  before  them. 

The  conductor,  who  was  the  same  that  had 
been  with  them  on  the  electric  car,  stood  in 
the  front  and  explained  to  them  the  points 
of  interest. 

"  The  Great  Cable  Incline  that  connects 
Rubio  Canon  with  the  summit  of  Echo 
Mountain  is  about  two  thirds  of  a  mile  in 


74  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

length,  and  is  without  doubt  the  safest  and 
most  unique  piece  of  railroading  in  the 
world.  It  has  the  remarkable  inclination  of 
from  forty-eight  to  sixty  degrees." 

The  car  began  to  rise,  and  with  a  simulta- 
neous impulse  the  party  were  on  their  feet. 
Emma  Burroughs,  however,  sank  down  in 
sudden  terror  and  covered  her  eyes  with  her 
hands. 

Slowly  and  steadily  the  car  swung  up  as 
though  in  mid-air,  and  the  horizon  widened, 
the  scenery  unfolding  as  the  earth  receded 
from  them.  To  their  right,  the  San  Gabriel 
Valley  stretched  like  a  level  sea,  Pasadena 
glimmering  faintly  through  a  luminous  mist 
that  reached  in  the  distant  foreground  the 
base  of  Mount  Santiago,  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  rising  from  it  like  an  island  in  the 
sea.  Above  the  horizon,  bounded  by  sinu- 
ous mountain  curves,  peak  after  peak  lifted 
its  purple  head  as  they  rose  higher  and 
higher ;  while  close  at  hand  they  were 
hemmed  in  by  brown  and  rocky  steeps  that 
broke  away  at  the  left  in  the  wild,  half-hid- 
den ravine  of  Rubio  Canon. 


MOUNT  LOWE  75 

The  voice  of  the  conductor  droned  on,  but 
they  did  not  hear  it.  Gottfried  was  fasten- 
ing in  his  memory  a  picture  to  be  transferred 
to  canvas ;  and  the  others  drank  in  the  glo- 
rious beauty  of  the  scene  with  silent  delight. 

"  It  is  wonderful,"  said  Constance  after- 
ward, "  to  climb  a  mountain  and  see  the  ho- 
rizon widen  below.  But  you  climb  with 
your  back  to  the  greater  part  of  the  scenery 
and  have  to  turn  at  intervals  to  get  the  ef- 
fect; while  we  stood  facing  it  all,  and  the 
scene  changed  with  the  swift  movement  of  a 
panorama.  The  appearance  of  that  succes- 
sion of  purple  mountain-peaks  was  one  of  the 
most  grandly  beautiful  phenomena  I  have 
ever  seen." 

At  last  they  reached  the  summit,  and 
stepped  out  at  the  entrance  steps  of  the 
Echo  Mountain  House,  a  picturesque  build- 
ing with  long  verandas  and  a  circular 
dome. 

"  The  electric  car  starts  up  to  Mount 
Lowe  in  a  few  minutes,"  said  the  conductor 
in  his  function  of  guide,  "  and  will  return 


76  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

in  time  for  dinner.  You  will  just  have  time 
to  go  in  and  register." 

The  ascent  of  Mount  Lowe  proved  more 
wonderful  and  beautiful  than  even  the  wild 
ride  up  the  Cable  Incline.  To  the  right, 
the  brown  wall  of  the  mountain  rose  rocky 
and  precipitous  ;  to  the  left,  a  succession  of 
canons  looked  down  upon  the  valley,  where 
Pasadena  and  Los  Angeles  lay,  hidden  in  a 
mist  that  was  like  a  violet  sea ;  and  beyond, 
the  range  of  the  Santa  Monica  Mountains 
lifted  their  summits  against  the  sky,  opal- 
escent masses  of  a  remarkable  semi-trans- 
lucence. 

"  It  is  a  symphony  in  a  minor  key,"  said 
Constance,  as  she  drank  in  the  beauty  of 
the  soft,  ethereal  coloring. 

"The  colors  of  those  mountains  are  like 
opals  and  moonstones,"  said  Heinrich 
Dierssen. 

Emma  Burroughs  and  Mrs.  Dierssen 
were  sitting  side  by  side  in  silent  delight. 
Gottfried  stood  at  the  end  of  the  car,  trans- 
ferring hasty  lines  to  his  sketch-book. 


MOUNT  LOWE  77 

"  Wunderschon"  he  murmured,  "wun- 
derschon" 

"Yes,"  said  Constance  softly;  "that  is 
the  only  word  that  is  worthy  of  it ;  wonder- 
ful and  beautiful." 

Past  the  canon  of  Los  Flores,  or  The 
Flowers,  past  Sugar-Loaf,  Milard,  and 
Grand  Canons,  they  swept  in  strange  loops 
and  curves  that  transcended  the  wonders  of 
Tehachapi  Pass.  At  one  spot,  they  could 
count  the  track  in  seven  places ;  at  other 
times,  they  looked  down  from  dizzy  heights 
on  sinuous  trails  no  wider  than  the  daring 
track  by  which  they  were  outlined.  As 
they  ascended,  the  barrenness  of  the  lower 
altitudes  gave  place  to  a  growth  of  live-oak 
and  what  Heinrich  Dierssen  greeted  joy- 
fully as  the  " Nadelholz"  or  needle-bearing 
trees. 

Gottfried  put  away  his  sketch-book  in 
despair. 

"  I  will  climb  up  to-morrow  morning  and 
get  the  outlines,"  he  said.  "  The  color 
effects  I  can  carry  in  my  memory." 


78  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Is  this  like  Alpine  scenery  ?  "  asked 
Constance,  turning  to  Heinrich  Dierssen. 

"  No,"  said  the  latter  with  decision ; 
"these  are  not  the  Alpine  effects  at  all. 
The  colors  are  brilliant  in  Alpine  scenery, 
like  a  Titian  painting.  This  is  colder,  but 
more  ethereal  and  more  beautiful." 

She  had  spoken  to  him  in  English  and  he 
had  replied  in  German,  so  absorbed  in 
admiration  of  the  scenes  through  which 
they  were  passing  that  he  had  not  noticed 
the  unconscious  transition  from  one  lan- 
guage to  another. 

"Yes,"  said  Constance;  "I  think  this 
must  be  more  like  Arctic  scenery ;  one 
could  almost  imagine  those  translucent  vio- 
let mountains  were  glaciers  and  icebergs." 

"  It  needs  only  the  aurora  borealis  above 
them  to  make  the  illusion  perfect,"  as- 
sented Dierssen. 

The  sun  was  just  .setting  when  they  re- 
turned to  the  hotel,  laden  with  beautiful 
specimens  of  the  long  green  moss  that  covers 
the  twigs  and  hangs  from  the  branches  of 


MOUNT   LOWE  79 

the  live-oaks.  Even  now  the  color  effects 
of  the  scene  were  subdued,  passing  in  im- 
perceptible transitions  from  crimsons  and 
violets  to  silver  and  gray. 

After  dinner  the  little  group  had  become 
separated,  and  Gottfried  and  Constance  sat 
together  at  the  front  of  the  long  veranda, 
looking  down  into  the  blackness  of  the 
valley  below.  The  night  was  moonless. 
A  little  below  them,  on  the  mountain-side, 
glimmered  the  white  chalet,  that  had 
originally  been  the  hotel.  Above  them  tow- 
ered the  summit  of  Echo  Mountain ;  on 
either  side  the  slopes  were  dim  in  the  dark- 
ness; while  far  below,  in  the  fathomless 
gloom-filled  valley,  shone  two  constellations 
of  lights,  marking  the  sites  of  Pasadena 
and  Los  Angeles ;  the  former  of  dazzling 
brightness,  the  latter,  from  its  greater  dis- 
tance, piercing  the  darkness  with  a  fainter 
brilliance. 

There  were  several  groups  of  guests  in 
different  parts  of  the  veranda ;  but  the 
seats  immediately  about  them  were  unoccu- 


80  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

pied.  Gottfried  leaned  toward  Constance 
and  captured  her  hand. 

"It  seems  as  though  there  were  just  we 
two  together  in  all  the  world,"  he  said. 

"And  not  iu  the  world,"  she  rejoined, 
"but  above  the  world,  with  all  its  trivial 
round  of  daily  life.  Alone  together,"  she 
added  softly,  pressing  the  hand  that  in- 
closed her  own. 

The  next  moment  they  had  started  for- 
ward with  a  simultaneous  cry.  A  broad 
stream  of  light  had  bridged  the  darkness  to 
the  valley  below,  and  brought  out  in  a  swift 
flash-picture  a  pretty  cottage  in  a  luminous 
circle,  whose  distinctness  was  intensified  by 
the  dense  blackness  above  it. 

"  The  search-light,"  said  Gottfried,  bend- 
ing forward. 

"And  is  that  a  house  in  Pasadena?" 
asked  Constance. 

"  It  must  be,"  he  replied. 

The  shaft  of  light  turned  upward  toward 
the  mountain,  and  played  upon  a  peak  that 
seemed  suddenly  to  swim  out  of  a  sea  of 


MOUNT  LOWE  81 

darkness.  Again  and  again  the  weird 
flash-pictures  leapt  to  sudden  and  ephemeral 
life,  only  to  sink  again  into  the  black  ob- 
livion of  the  night. 

"They  are  like  our  lives,"  said  Gott- 
fried musingly ;  "  a  moment  of  light  be- 
tween the  darkness  of  two  eternities." 

"  But  the  peaks  and  the  slopes  and  the 
cottages  are  there,  even  in  the  darkness," 
said  Constance  softly.  "  So  it  is  with  the 
deathless  reality  of  love." 

If  Gottfried  was  tinged  with  the  skep- 
ticism of  German  philosophy,  nevertheless 
he  liked  to  hear  those  words  fall  from  her 
lips. 

The  light  went  out,  and  again  the  veil 
of  darkness  settled  over  them.  A  wag- 
onette rattled  up  to  the  side  door,  and 
the  voice  of  Heinrich  Dierssen  broke  the 
stillness. 

"  Come  up  to  the  observatory,"  he  said  ; 
"  they  say  it 's  a  fine  night  to  see  Saturn." 

"  And  where  are  the  others  ? "  asked 
Gottfried,  as  they  rose  to  follow  him. 


82  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  My  mother  and  Miss  Burroughs  are  in 
the  wagonette,"  he  replied. 

A  moment  later  they  were  seated,  Con- 
stance occupying  a  high  perch  beside  the 
driver;  and  the  wagonette  rattled  rapidly 
over  the  winding  road,  the  horses  turning 
with  trained  agility  the  sharp,  unexpected 
curves  that  threw  the  occupants  of  the  wag- 
onette out  of  their  seats  amid  screams  of 
laughter. 

In  the  observatory,  they  climbed  the  lad- 
der in  the  darkness,  and  as  they  looked 
through  the  great  telescope,  shouted  ques- 
tions into  the  deaf  ear  of  the  kindly  old  as- 
tronomer, who  answered  with  more  patience 
and  wisdom  than  comprehension  of  their 
immediate  needs. 

On  their  return  to  the  hotel,  they  stood 
at  the  back  of  the  house  while  the  cannon 
was  fired,  and  listened  to  the  echo  flung  from 
slope  to  slope,  that  sounded  in  its  continu- 
ous reverberation  like  a  heavy  roll  of  thun- 
der. It  was  a  fitting  salute  to  the  day  that 
had  been  so  full  of  wonders  and  surprises. 


MOUNT  LOWE  83 

"  Will  you  walk  up  the  mountain  with  me 
to-morrow  ?  "  asked  Gottfried  of  Constance, 
as  they  stood  in  the  hallway  a  moment  be- 
fore parting  for  the  night. 

"  Will  you  be  back  in  time  for  the  Rubio 
Canon  trip  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  can  take  that  in  the  after- 
noon. We  do  not  leave  here  till  four." 

"  I  should  like  to  go,"  said  Constance, 
"  but  I  hope  it  will  be  cooler  than  it  has 
been  to-day." 

"  Don't  decide  then  until  to-morrow,"  he 
said  ;  "  it  will  make  no  difference  to  me,  ex- 
cept that  I  should  like  to  have  your  com- 
pany, as  always." 

The  last  words  were  almost  a  whisper,  and 
were  accompanied  by  a  pressure  of  the  hand. 

"  Good-night,  mein  Liebchen"  he  added  ; 
"  I  would  like  a  kiss,  but  there  come  Hem- 
rich  and  Miss  Burroughs." 

"  What  have  they  done  with  Mrs.  Diers- 
sen?  "  asked  Constance  ;  "  and  why  is  Emma 
blushing  so  ?  Do  you  know,  Gottfried,  I  be- 
lieve "  —  and  she  stopped  with  a  laugh. 


84  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

The  next  morning  the  little  party  as- 
sembled on  the  veranda  before  daybreak 
to  watch  the  sunrise.  The  pageant  began 
with  a  soft  deepening  of  color  on  the  dis- 
tant hills  and  in  the  sky.  Slowly  the  light 
spread  along  the  horizon,  peak  after  peak 
and  slope  after  slope  transformed  to  a  golden 
glory  while  they  were  yet  in  shadow.  The 
light  drew  nearer  and  nearer  ;  and  at  length 
over  the  edge  of  a  beetling  height  above 
them,  the  rim  of  the  sun  appeared,  more 
than  an  hour  after  daylight  shone  on  the 
most  distant  hills. 

The  morning  was  warm,  with  more  of  op- 
pressive heat  than  is  ever  felt  in  the  valley 
and  plains  below.  The  ladies,  who  had  worn 
their  heavy  clothing,  were  very  uncomfort- 
able, and  Constance  hesitated  to  take  the 
walk  up  the  mountain  with  Gottfried.  He 
did  not  urge  it,  and  even  insisted  on  her  stay- 
ing below  in  the  comparative  coolness  of  the 
shaded  veranda.  Heinrich  volunteered  to 
entertain  the  ladies  in  his  absence,  and  he 
set  off  alone,  promising  to  return  for  lunch 


MOUNT  LOWE  85 

and  go  with  them  to  Rubio  Canon  in  the 
afternoon. 

The  morning  seemed  to  Constance  of  in- 
terminable length.  They  went  down  to  the 
chalet,  which  was  used  for  overflow  when 
necessary,  and  sometimes  for  servants'  quar- 
ters, but  which  was  unoccupied  now,  during 
the  dull  season.  They  found  it  cooler  than 
the  hotel,  and  established  themselves  on  the 
veranda  for  a  comfortable  chat.  Constance 
noticed  with  a  smile  that  Heinrich  Dierssen 
had  drawn  a  little  apart  with  Emma  Bur- 
roughs. For  the  first  time,  too,  she  thought 
that  Emma  Burroughs  was  almost  pretty, 
with  the  flush  of  pleasure  on  her  face  and 
the  unaccustomed  sparkle  in  her  eyes. 

"  I  don't  believe  she  is  more  than  twenty- 
seven  or  eight,  after  all,"  she  said  to  herself. 
"  She  must  be  at  least  ten  years  younger 
than  her  sister.  Heinrich  Dierssen  is  cer- 
tainly older  than  Gottfried,  and  can  be  little 
if  any  younger  than  Emma.  I  don't  see 
why  it  should  n't  be."  And  with  the  enthu- 
siasm of  her  sex  for  match-making,  Con- 
stance determined  to  help  matters  along. 


86  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

The  most  obvious  thing  to  do  at  present 
was  to  leave  them  to  themselves ;  so  Con- 
stance turned  to  Mrs.  Dierssen  and  talked 
with  her  in  imperfect  German,  asking  her 
about  those  places  in  Germany  that  Gott- 
fried had  sometimes  mentioned. 

Thus  the  morning  wore  away.  For  some 
reason  Constance  had  lost  her  buoyant  spirits 
and  felt  vaguely  regretful  that  she  had  not 
gone  with  Gottfried  up  the  mountain.  She 
was  glad  when  Mrs.  Dierssen  declared  it  was 
time  to  go  to  lunch. 

They  went  back  to  the  hotel,  and  looked 
for  Gottfried,  but  in  vain.  He  was  not  on 
the  veranda,  nor  in  the  lower  vestibule,  nor 
in  the  parlor  above. 

"  He  must  be  in  his  room,"  said  Hein- 
rich ;  "  I  will  go  and  see." 

But  the  door  was  locked,  and  there  was  no 
answer  to  his  tap. 

He  returned  to  the  group  on  the  veranda, 
and  here  they  waited  some  time  longer ;  but 
Gottfried  did  not  return.  Constance  was 
anxious  and  ill  at  ease ;  but  she  strove  to 


MOUNT  LOWE  87 

conceal  her  agitation.  She  laughed  and 
jested  in  a  merry  way,  but  at  intervals  fell 
into  abstracted  silence.  Heinrich  began  to 
suspect  there  was  some  cause  for  her  anxiety, 
and  speculated  idly  as  to  its  nature. 

At  last,  at  the  young  man's  suggestion, 
they  went  to  the  dining-room,  thinking  Gott- 
fried would  join  them  there  on  his  return. 
But  they  finished  lunch,  and  still  he  had  not 
come.  The  White  Chariot  was  ready  to 
start  down  the  Incline  for  the  trip  to  Rubio 
Canon. 

"  You  had  better  go,"  Constance  said  to 
the  others.  "  I  will  stay  here  till  he  re- 
turns." After  a  moment's  demur  they  left 
her. 

The  White  Chariot  swept  down  the  In- 
cline with  its  merry,  laughing  load  of  pas- 
sengers ;  and  Constance  turned  back  into 
the  vestibule  with  an  undefined  fear  in  her 
heart.  She  went  directly  to  the  office  and 
spoke  to  the  clerk. 

"  Have  you  seen  Mr.  Jager  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  Oh,  yes,"  was  the  reply.  "  He  went 
back  to  Los  Angeles  this  morning." 


88  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Constance  paled,  but  controlled  herself 
with  an  effort. 

"  Did  he  leave  any  word  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  No,"  was  the  answer.  "  He  merely 
asked  for  his  bill ;  and  when  he  had  settled 
it,  went  out  to  the  Chariot  and  got  in,  just 
as  it  was  starting  down  for  the  morning 
train.  By  the  way,"  he  added,  drawing  out 
a  roll  of  papers,  "  the  bell-boy  found  these 
in  his  room  after  he  left.  Perhaps  you  will 
be  kind  enough  to  return  them  to  him." 

Mechanically  Constance  took  the  roll  he 
handed  to  her,  and  walked  slowly  up  to  her 
room.  When  she  had  closed  the  door  be- 
hind her,  she  unrolled  the  papers  and  looked 
at  them.  They  were  evidently  the  sketches 
he  had  made  on  the  mountain  that  morning. 

An  hour  later,  the  party  to  Rubio  Canon 
returned.  Constance  met  them  quietly,  and 
told  them  that  Gottfried  had  been  unex- 
pectedly called  away  on  the  morning  train 
and  had  left  word  with  the  clerk  for  them. 
She  choked  a  little  over  the  last  words,  but 
could  not  resist  the  loving  deception.  Hein- 


MOUNT  LOWE  89 

rich  looked  at  her  keenly,  and  saw  that  his 
suspicious  of  the  morning  had  not  been  un- 
founded ;  but  he  made  no  comment  on  her 
explanation,  simply  translating  it  to  his  mo- 
ther in  response  to  her  inquiries. 

The  return  to  Los  Angeles  was  silent  or 
broken  by  forced  conversation,  all  reference 
to  the  unaccountable  defection  of  their  com- 
panion being  carefully  avoided.  Constance 
felt  herself  continually  on  the  point  of  tears, 
and  could  hardly  trust  her  voice  to  answer 
the  remarks  addressed  to  her.  Heinrich 
Dierssen  and  Emma  Burroughs  were  ab- 
sorbed in  each  other  in  a  quiet  way;  and 
Mrs.  Dierssen,  seeing  the  girl's  distress,  did 
not  trouble  her  with  much  attempt  at  con- 
versation. 

While  Constance  was  crying  herself  to 
sleep  that  night,  Rex  Carrington,  dispensing 
with  the  somewhat  officious  ministrations  of 
Perkins,  paced  his  study  with  corrugated 
brow  and  hands  clasped  behind  him. 

He  stopped  in  front  of  the  Madonna,  and 
stood  looking  at  it.  Gottfried  had  tried  in 


90  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

vain  to  regain  possession  of  the  picture, 
having  offered  him  twice  what  he  had  paid 
for  it,  though  the  price  would  have  left  him 
without  means  of  buying  his  next  meal. 
But  Rex  Carrington  had  laughed  at  his 
overtures  and  sent  him  scornful  replies. 

Now,  as  the  young  man  gazed  at  the  pic- 
tured face,  he  realized  as  never  before  the 
strange  power  it  had  over  him.  All  the 
best  and  noblest  part  of  his  nature  had  been 
touched  to  life  by  the  revelation.  Yet  he 
could  not  understand  himself. 

"  What  a  fool  I  am,"  he  muttered,  "  to 
be  in  love  with  a  picture.  And  such  love ! 
I  never  knew  the  meaning  of  the  word  be- 
fore. I  feel  as  though  I  could  carry  that  girl 
in  my  arms  to  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  and  I 
could  no  more  harm  her  than  I  could  harm 
an  angel.  What  would  my  mother  think  if 
she  knew  I  wanted  to  marry  her,  —  my 
mother,  who  is  the  daughter  of  an  earl  ?  But 
she  is  fit  to  be  a  countess  herself,"  he  went 
on,  letting  his  eyes  rest  on  the  pictured  face. 
"It  is  strange  I  cannot  find  her.  And  it 


MOUNT  LOWE  91 

is  strange  that  fool  of  an  artist  does  not 
succeed  in  meeting  me.  We  are  even  now 
at  least,  for  it  was  he  that  failed  at  the  ren- 
dezvous last  week,  and  I  have  cast  the  impu- 
tation of  coward  in  his  teeth." 

He  stopped  again  in  front  of  the  picture, 
and,  looking  closely  at  the  name  scrawled 
across  the  lower  corner,  gave  a  start  of  sur- 
prise. 

"  Gottfried  Jager ! "  he  exclaimed.  "  It  is 
strange  I  never  thought  of  it  before.  It  is 
easy  enough  to  translate.  Gottfried  Jager ; 
how  the  deuce  did  the  fellow  get  that 
name?" 

He  stared  at  the  words  with  incredulous 
wonder. 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence,"  he  mut- 
tered, and  fell  to  pacing  the  floor  again. 


VII 

CLOUDS 

IT  was  early  in  the  afternoon  that  Con- 
stance turned  up  Adams  Street  on  her  way 
to  the  home  of  little  Lillian  Ferris,  one  of 
her  music  pupils.  She  was  dressed  in  a 
dainty  summer  gown  of  pink  and  white,  but, 
mindful  of  the  afternoon  sea  breeze,  she 
carried  her  winter  cape  over  her  arm.  She 
did  not  know  what  a  pretty  picture  she  made; 
and  as  she  hurried  along  her  thoughts  were 
anxious  and  unhappy,  for  she  had  not  seen 
Gottfried  since  he  left  them  at  Echo  Moun- 
tain. She  had  almost  been  tempted  to  make 
a  confidante  of  Mrs.  Dierssen,for  she  longed 
for  comfort  and  counsel ;  but  she  felt  that 
the  secret  belonged  to  Gottfried,  and  what- 
ever it  might  be,  it  was  her  duty  to  guard  it 
for  him.  Her  mother  was  as  much  disturbed 
as  Constance  over  the  mystery  that  seemed 


CLOUDS  93 

to  surround  Gottfried's  life.  She  almost 
regretted  that  she  had  not  opposed  the 
courtship  in  the  beginning  ;  but  she  could 
not  help  liking  and  trusting  Gottfried  her- 
self, and  she  knew  that  now  her  daughter's 
happiness  was  irrevocably  bound  up  in  him. 
It  happened,  therefore,  that  his  absence  was 
scarcely  ever  commented  upon  between 
them,  each  wishing  to  spare  the  other  the 
pain  of  discussing  the  subject. 

Constance  had  just  passed  the  house  in 
which  Gottfried  lived,  and  the  drawn  blinds 
of  the  studio  window  had  seemed  in  some 
mysterious  way  to  shut  him  out  of  her  life. 
Where  he  passed  his  time  and  what  he  did 
in  those  long  days  away  from  her  she  had 
tried  in  vain  to  imagine.  Not  by  the  slight- 
est reference  or  lapse  of  caution  had  he  ever 
given  her  a  glimpse  into  those  closed  chap- 
ters of  his  life. 

As  she  continued  her  walk  she  left  behind 
her  the  pretty  cottages  with  their  trim  little 
gardens,  and  turning  on  a  broad  street, 
passed  a  succession  of  beautiful  residences, 


94  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVKR 

most  of  them  of  either  Renaissance  or  Gothic 
architecture.  She  turned  in  at  the  gate  of  a 
spacious  house  built  in  Queen  Anne  style, 
and  a  moment  later  was  in  the  music-room 
with  her  little  pupil. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  she  could  con- 
centrate her  mind  upon  the  monotonous 
round  of  scales  and  exercises,  and  the  pretty 
spoiled  child  seemed  more  careless  and  try- 
ing than  usual.  The  ordeal  was  over  at 
last,  however,  and  she  stood  by  the  piano 
drawing  on  her  gloves,  when  Miss  Ferris, 
her  pupil's  sister,  entered  the  room.  She 
was  a  handsome  girl,  with  a  cold,  proud 
face,  and  an  air  of  almost  disdainful  hauteur. 
She  nodded  carelessly  to  Constance  as  she 
crossed  the  room. 

"Did  you  see  my  card-case,  Lillian?"  she 
said  to  her  little  sister ;  "  I  thought  I  left  it 
on  the  piano." 

"  Yes,  it  is  here,"  said  the  child,  picking 
it  up  and  holding  it  out  to  her. 

As  Miss  Ferris  stepped  forward  to  take 
it,  passing  in  front  of  Constance  to  do  so, 


CLOUDS  95 

something  fell  at  her  feet.  It  was  the  locket 
that  Gottfried  had  given  Constance.  A  link 
of  the  chain  had  parted,  and  in  falling  the 
locket  had  opened,  and  lay  with  the  portrait 
exposed  to  view.  Miss  Ferris  glanced  down, 
and,  with  a  cry  of  surprise,  stooped  swiftly 
and  lifted  the  trinket  in  her  hand. 

"Is  this  your  property,  Miss  Wilbur?" 
she  asked  coldly. 

"  Thank  you,  yes,"  said  Constance,  hold- 
ing out  her  hand  for  the  locket. 

Miss  Ferris  did  not  notice  the  gesture,  but 
continued  looking  at  the  portrait. 

"  May  I  take  the  liberty  of  inquiring  who 
this  is  ?  "  she  asked,  raising  her  scornful  eyes 
to  Constance's  face. 

"  Certainly,"  said  Constance  with  quiet 
dignity ;  "  it  is  my  fiance." 

Miss  Ferris  laughed ;  a  bitter,  mocking 
laugh  that  vibrated  painfully  on  her  lis- 
tener's ears. 

"  So  that  is  what  he  tells  you,"  she  said ; 
"  and  it  is  presumably  with  you  he  spends 
so  much  of  the  time  he  denies  his  friends." 


96  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

She  handed  back  the  locket  and  turned 
to  leave  the  room.  Constance  stopped  her 
with  an  imperative  gesture. 

"  Miss  Ferris,"  she  said,  steadying  her 
voice  with  an  effort,  "will  you  be  kind 
enough  to  explain  the  meaning  of  your 
words?" 

"  Certainly,  since  you  wish  it,"  was  the 
cold  reply.  "  The  gentleman  whose  portrait 
you  wear,  is  engaged  to  a  lady  of  position 
and  wealth.  He  is  deceiving  you  —  unless, 
perhaps,  you  are  deceiving  me." 

The  face  of  Constance  had  paled,  but 
flushed  deeply  at  the  insult  of  the  concluding 
words. 

"  It  is  not  true,"  she  cried  with  passionate 
vehemence  ;  "  I  know  it  is  not  true." 

"As  you  wish,"  said  Miss  Ferris  icily; 
"  I  suppose,  of  course,  you  wear  his  ring." 

As  she  spoke,  she  glanced  from  the  little 
gloved  hands  to  the  indignant  face.  The 
eyes  of  Constance  faltered  and  fell. 

"  Ah  !  "  said  Miss  Ferris  quietly,  "  I  see 
you  do  not.  It  is  as  I  thought." 


CLOUDS  97 

Again  she  turned  to  leave  the  room,  and 
again  Constance  detained  her. 

"  Miss  Ferris,"  she  said,  "  you  must  hear 
me.  He  gave  me  no  ring  because  he  has  a 
prejudice,  a  superstition,  if  you  like,  against 
the  custom.  He  gave  me  the  locket  in- 
stead." 

"And  you  believe  in  his  superstition?" 
asked  Miss  Ferris  with  contemptuous  scorn. 
"  Perhaps  you  will  be  glad  for  me  to  tell 
you  that  he  reserves  the  ring  for  his  true 
fiancee." 

As  she  spoke,  she  twisted  carelessly  a 
handsome  solitaire  diamond  that  gleamed  on 
her  finger.  Constance,  in  her  agitation,  did 
not  notice  the  movement.  With  an  effort, 
she  controlled  herself  and  gathered  up  her 
music  from  the  piano.  Little  Lillian,  who 
had  annoyed  her  so  during  the  lesson  hour, 
had  slipped  around  by  her  side  and  seized 
her  hand. 

"Don't  mind  her,"  she  said,  looking  at 
her  sister  spitefully ;  "  she 's  a  cross  old 
thing,  anyway." 


98  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

But  the  two  girls  stood  facing  each  other, 
unconscious  of  the  presence  of  the  child. 
In  the  ears  of  Constance  the  words  of  the 
other  kept  repeating-  themselves. 

"It  is  not  true,"  she  said  again;  "you 
cannot  make  me  believe  it  is  true."  And 
some  way,  she  never  knew  exactly  how,  she 
got  out  of  the  room  and  out  of  the  house, 
into  the  open  air. 

She  hurried  along  the  street,  her  thoughts 
in  a  confused  whirl.  Gottfried  was  certainly 
true  to  her,  she  assured  herself  over  and 
over.  But  even  as  she  said  the  words  she 
passed  his  studio  with  its  closed  blinds,  and 
her  heart  sank  with  vague  terror.  What 
was  the  mystery  that  surrounded  his  life? 
How  did  he  pass  the  long  hours  away  from 
her?  Was  it  indeed  Miss  Ferris  or  one  of 
her  friends  that  drew  him  away  from  her, 
and  could  he  be  deceiving  her?  But  her 
reason  came  to  the  aid  of  her  heart  in  protest 
against  the  thought.  Miss  Ferris,  with  her 
family,  and  her  wealth  and  her  pride,  would 
scorn  such  a  suitor  as  a  poor  and  unknown 


CLOUDS  99 

artist,  and  so  would  any  woman  of  her  set. 
It  must  be  there  was  some  remarkable  re- 
semblance that  was  playing  a  trick  of  mis- 
taken identity.  Why  had  she  not  asked 
Miss  Ferris  the  name  of  the  man  to  whom 
she  referred?  That  might  have  explained 
all.  And  yet,  could  she  herself  ever  mis- 
take another  face  for  Gottfried's?  Surely 
there  was  no  other  like  it  in  the  world,  no 
other  so  dreamy  and  handsome  and  good. 

It  had  turned  suddenly  cold  with  the  af- 
ternoon wind,  and  she  threw  her  heavy  wrap 
over  her  shoulders  as  she  hurried  along.  A 
dozen  thoughts  surged  wildly  through  her 
brain ;  but  through  them  all  came  the  re- 
lentless recollection  that  she  had  another 
lesson  to  give  that  afternoon.  For  the  mo- 
ment she  had  forgotten  it,  and  started  auto- 
matically toward  home.  Now  she  turned 
back,  and  walked  faster  to  make  good  the 
time  she  had  lost. 

An  hour  later,  as  she  came  out  again  on 
the  street,  closing  the  gate  behind  her,  she 
almost  fell  into  the  arms  of  Gottfried.  She 


100  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

gave  a  little  cry  of  delight,  and  held  out  both 
her  hands  to  him. 

"  Gottfried,  Gottfried  !  "  she  said,  lifting 
her  eyes  to  him  pleadingly. 

"  Why,  mein  Z/iebchen,  what  is  the  mat- 
ter ?  "  he  exclaimed ;  for  tears  trembled  on 
the  long  lashes. 

"  You  are  not  —  you  are  —  why  did  you 
give  me  a  locket  instead  of  a  ring?"  she 
burst  out  incoherently. 

An  expression  of  pain  crossed  his  face. 

"  Come,  meine  Liebste,  we  cannot  talk 
on  the  street,"  he  said  gently.  "  Come  back 
to  my  studio." 

It  did  not  occur  to  her  that  there  was 
anything  unconventional  in  stopping  with 
him  at  the  studio.  She  had  gone  there  day 
after  day  to  pose  for  the  Madonna  and  to 
sit  for  the  portrait ;  so  she  allowed  him  to 
draw  her  hand  through  his  arm,  and  they 
passed  up  the  street  in  silence  together. 
Gottfried  could  feel  the  little  hand  on  his 
arm  tremble,  and  he  longed  to  clasp  it  in 
his ;  but  even  on  the  quiet  street  they  were 


CLOUDS  101 

traversing  there  were  occasional  passers,  and 
at  intervals  suburban  street-cars  swept  by 
with  a  whir  and  a  clang  of  bells. 

They  entered  the  house  of  Mrs.  Flanni- 
gan,  and  Gottfried  opened  the  door  of  the 
studio.  Constance  followed  him  into  the 
room  and  glanced  about  her.  There  was 
dust  on  tables  and  chairs ;  and  some  sketches 
that  had  been  pinned  to  the  wall  lay  scat- 
tered on  the  floor.  The  portrait  of  Con- 
stance stood  on  the  easel  opposite  the  closed 
door  of  an  inner  room,  and  smiled  at  them. 
The  girl  sank  down  in  the  chair  in  which 
she  had  sat  for  the  picture  and  burst  into 
tears. 

Gottfried  stood  by,  at  a  loss  to  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  it  all,  and  waiting  for 
Constance  to  speak.  But  she  paid  no  heed 
to  him  and  continued  to  sob.  At  length  he 
crossed  the  room  and  tried  to  draw  her 
hands  from  her  eyes. 

"  What  is  it,  mein  Liebchen  ? "  he  said 
tenderly.  "  Won't  you  tell  me  ?  " 

She  drew  her  hands  from  his  and  raised 


102  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

her  eyes  to  his  face.  Lifting  the  locket 
from  her  breast,  she  held  it  up  toward  him. 

"  To  whom  did  you  give  the  ring  that  you 
would  not  give  to  me  ?  "  she  asked  slowly. 
In  her  heart  she  believed  him  true  to  her, 
but  she  wanted  to  test  him  by  the  sudden- 
ness of  the  attack. 

His  face  flushed,  and  a  momentary  anger 
flashed  in  his  eyes. 

"  I  have  given  no  ring,"  he  said.  "  I 
have  given  a  present  to  no  woman  but  you." 

"  And  do  you  not  know  Miss  Ferris,  of 
No.  —  Adams  Street  ?  "  she  continued. 

"No,"  he  returned,  "I  never  heard  of 
her." 

His  eyes  looked  frankly  in  hers,  and  she 
could  no  longer  doubt  him. 

She  rose  and  held  out  her  hands  to  him. 

"  Forgive  me,"  she  said  simply. 

For  answer  he  drew  her  into  his  arms. 

"  But  tell  me,  mein  Liebchen"  he  said 
a  moment  later,  "  why  you  should  have 
doubted  me,  even  for  a  moment." 

"  Miss  Ferris  is  the  sister  of  one  of  my 


CLOUDS  103 

pupils,"  Constance  explained.  "  She  told 
me  you  were  deceiving  me  ;  that  you  were 
engaged  to  a  girl  of  position  and  wealth. 
She  thought  she  recognized  your  portrait  in 
the  locket." 

As  she  spoke,  Gottfried  had  turned  white, 
and  a  vague  horror  had  crept  into  his  face. 

"  And  I  have  been  so  worried  about  you," 
continued  Constance,  who  had  laid  her 
cheek  on  his  shoulder  and  did  not  see  his 
face,  "  ever  since  you  left  us  so  suddenly  at 
Echo  Mountain.  And  you  have  been  away 
so  long  this  time,  you  know." 

Gottfried  started  back  and  his  arms  fell 
away  from  her. 

"  God  forgive  me  !  "  he  cried,  staggering 
against  the  wall  and  covering  his  face  with 
his  hands.  "  I  did  not  dream  it  was  so  bad 
as  this." 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  cried  the  girl  in  terror, 
running  to  him  and  clinging  to  his  arm. 
"  It  is  your  turn  to  tell  me  your  trou- 
bles. Tell  me,  and  let  me  share  them  with 
you." 


104  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Achf  mein  Liebchen"  he  said,  looking 
down  at  her  and  stroking  her  cheek ;  "  I  can- 
not tell  you  ;  it  is  beyond  my  power ;  and, 
wretch  that  I  am,  I  am  not  strong  enough 
to  give  you  up." 

"  No,"  she  said  solemnly  ;  "  I  know  you 
cannot  give  me  up ;  and  I  thank  God  for 
it." 

Again  he  drew  her  into  his  arms  and 
kissed  her  tenderly,  but  without  passion. 

"  I  cannot  marry  you,  mein  Liebchen"  he 
said,  "  with  a  cloud  on  my  life.  But  neither 
can  I  give  up  your  love.  You  will  wait  for 
me  a  little  longer,  and  I  will  not  rest  until  I 
have  made  myself  master  of  my  fate." 

Constance  looked  up  bravely  and  smiled 
through  her  tears. 

"  And  now,"  she  said,  "  you  will  come 
home  with  me  and  have  some  tea  and  toast 
with  us.  I  am  not  willing  to  lose  you,  even 
for  a  little  while,  this  evening." 

"  Faith,  and  I  thought  yez  was  niver 
comin'  again  at  all,  Mr.  Gottfried,"  said  the 
voice  of  Mrs.  Flannigan  as  they  stepped 


CLOUDS  105 

into  the  hall.  "  And  sure  it 's  good  for  sore 
eyes  is  the  sight  of  yez." 

Gottfried  made  a  laughing  rejoinder  and 
led  the  way  out  on  the  street. 

Mrs.  Wilbur  smiled  as  she  saw  the  two 
coming  arm-in-arm  through  the  gate.  She 
had  been  lying  on  her  lounge  in  the  bay- 
window  and  watching  for  Constance  for 
more  than  an  hour. 

That  evening  Constance  returned  to  Gott- 
fried the  Mount  Lowe  sketches  that  he  had 
feared  were  lost. 

"  I  am  sorry  I  did  not  get  Rubio  Canon," 
he  said,  as  he  glanced  over  them.  "  If  I 
had,  I  could  have  taken  an  order  to-day." 

It  was  the  only  comment  he  made  on  his 
disappearance ;  but  as  he  stood  with  her  in 
the  hallway  at  parting,  he  referred  again  to 
the  ring. 

"  You  will  not  let  it  trouble  you,  mein 
Liebchen  f  "  he  said.  "  You  will  believe  in 
me,  whatever  they  say  ?  " 

And  she  gave  him  the  assurance  he  de- 
sired. 


VIII 

A   STRANGE   DISAPPEARANCE 

THE  next  day,  Gottfried,  attired  scrupu- 
lously in  his  best,  bent  his  way  toward  Ad- 
ams  Street.  He  had  wanted  to  go  to  see 
Miss  Ferris  early  in  the  morning,  so  excited 
was  he  over  the  recital  of  Constance ;  but  he 
reflected  that  he  would  have  more  chance  of 
being  received  if  he  should  wait  till  after- 
noon. He  had  therefore  spent  the  morning 
in  touching  up  the  Mount  Lowe  sketches, 
finding  it  difficult,  however,  to  concentrate 
his  attention  upon  his  work.  He  had  not 
dined  at  the  little  coffee-house  where  he  was 
accustomed  to  meet  Heinrich  Dierssen  at 
noon,  for  he  wanted  to  avoid  his  friend  and 
the  uncomfortable  questions  he  would  un- 
doubtedly ask  him,  till  after  the  momentous 
interview;  but  he  had  wandered  into  a  little 
up-town  restaurant,  and  when  he  had  fin- 


A  STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         107 

ished  his  lunch,  had  occupied  the  interval  of 
waiting  in  strolling  about  the  streets.  It 
was  therefore  about  four  o'clock  when  he 
rang  the  bell  at  the  Ferris  mansion. 

As  the  servant  opened  the  door,  he  drew 
out  his  card,  on  which  was  inscribed  the  an- 
nouncement :  Gottfried  Jager,  Landscape 
and  Portrait  Painter.  Instructions  given 
from  10  to  12  and  2  to  4  daily.  To  his 
surprise  the  man  spoke  a  respectful  word  of 
recognition,  and,  opening  the  door,  led  the 
way  into  the  drawing-room. 

"  Miss  Ferris  has  been  expecting  you  all 
day,  sir,"  he  said,  as  he  retired. 

Gottfried  sat  down  bewildered  and  waited 
for  developments. 

The  train  of  his  thoughts  was  suddenly 
disturbed.  A  pretty  blonde  child  had  parted 
the  portieres  at  the  back  of  the  room  and 
was  looking  at  him  roguishly. 

"  Did  you  bring  me  the  box  of  bonbons  ?  " 
she  asked.  "  If  you  did?  give  them  to 
me  quick,  before  any  one  comes  and  says  I 
can't  have  them.  I  'm  going  to  put  them  in 


108  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Angelica's  trunk — Angelica 's  my  Paris  doll, 
you  know  —  and  eat  them  all  myself.  Why 
don't  you  bring  them  ?  "  she  added,  stamp- 
ing her  little  foot. 

"  I  'm  sorry,"  said  Gottfried,  laughing  in 
spite  of  his  perplexity,  "  but  you  '11  have  to 
excuse  me  this  time  ;  I  did  n't  bring  them." 

"  Then  I  won't  kiss  you,  and  you  can't 
catch  me  if  you  try,"  she  exclaimed. 

With  this  parting  shot,  she  drew  the  cur- 
tains  and  he  was  left  alone. 

He  looked  about  him  curiously.  He  was 
sure  that  he  had  never  seen  the  room  before. 
It  was  richly  furnished  with  Oriental  car- 
pets and  tapestries,  and  marbles  and  bronzes 
from  Italy.  Suddenly  he  started,  for  among 
the  paintings  that  adorned  the  walls,  he 
recognized  a  little  water-color  of  his  own. 
It  was  a  view  of  the  Golden  Gate  that  he 
had  intended  placing  in  the  store  of  Eobins 
Brothers  for  sale  some  time  before.  One 
day  he  had  missed  it  from  his  studio ;  and 
after  a  severe  strain  of  memory,  distinctly 
recollected  starting  out  to  the  dealers'  with 


A   STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         109 

it ;  but  upon  inquiry  at  the  store,  he  was 
told  that  it  had  never  been  received.  Think- 
ing there  was  a  possibility  of  mistake  now, 
he  rose,  and,  crossing  the  room,  scrutinized 
the  picture  closely.  The  name  of  Gottfried 
Jager  was  written  across  the  corner,  as  he 
had  thought  it  would  be. 

At  this  moment  the  servant  reentered  the 
room. 

"  Miss  Ferris  is  out  driving,  sir,"  he  said. 

"  Then  I  will  come  again,"  said  Gottfried, 
rising. 

The  servant  bowed  and  seemed  to  expect 
some  further  message.  Gottfried  thought  a 
moment  before  he  spoke.  It  was  Saturday, 
and  it  would  hardly  do  to  call  on  Sunday. 
It  was  with  an  effort  that  he  checked  his 
impatience  to  a  suitable  reply. 

"  Tell  her,"  he  said,  « that  I  will  come 
Monday  morning  at  eleven." 

He  glanced  at  the  man's  face,  but  it 
was  decorous  and  impassive.  Whatever  he 
thought,  he  understood  the  propriety  of  his 
position  too  well  to  betray  it  to  his  supe- 


110  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

As  Gottfried  walked  rapidly  down  the 
broad  street,  he  came  suddenly  upon  Hein- 
rich  Dierssen. 

"  Hello  !  "  ejaculated  the  latter,  stopping 
and  holding  out  his  hand.  "  Where  have 
you  been  so  long  ?  " 

Gottfried  made  an  evasive  answer  as  he 
gripped  his  friend's  hand. 

"How's  your  affair  with  the  Figueroa 
swell  coming  on  ? "  asked  Heinrich  jocu- 
larly. 

"  Let  me  see ;  what  is  the  second  date 
set?  Some  time  next  week,  isn't  it?" 
inquired  Gottfried. 

"  Look  here,  Gottfried,"  exclaimed  Diers- 
sen, almost  angrily ;  "  what  are  you  try- 
ing to  play  your  Rip  Van  Winkle  trick  on 
me  for  ?  It  was  last  week,  and  you  know 
it ;  and  your  confounded  disappearance  has 
given  that  fellow  a  chance  to  call  you  — 
what  is  your  American  word?  —  a  cad." 

Gottfried  paled,  but  tried  to  answer  non- 
chalantly. 

"  Don't  get   angry,  Heinrich,"  he   said  : 


A   STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         111 

"you  might  excuse  a  fellow  for  a  slip  of 
memory  when  he  has  as  much  on  his  mind 
as  I  have." 

Dierssen  looked  at  him  curiously.  He 
wondered  more  than  ever  what  the  mysteri- 
ous business  could  be  that  took  him  away 
so  suddenly. 

"  But  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  the 
appointment  ?  "  he  asked. 

Gottfried  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  I  suppose  we  must  set  another  date," 
he  replied.  "  And,  Heinrich,"  he  added 
more  seriously,  laying  his  hand  on  his 
friend's  arm,  "  when  I  am  away,  if  I  should 
be  called  away  at  any  time,  you  will  guard 
Constance  for  me  —  you  will  not  let  him 
meet  her  "  —  his  voice  broke,  and  he  could 
not  finish  his  sentence. 

Dierssen  sought  his  hand  and  gripped  it 
in  his  own. 

"  She  will  be  safe,"  he  said  ;  "  you  need 
not  fear  for  her." 

"  I  would  trust  mein  Liebchen  anywhere," 
said  Gottfried,  "  as  far  as  her  loyalty  and 


112  .4 AT  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

truth  are  concerned ;  but  I  will  not  have 
her  annoyed,  I  will  not  have  her  know  about 
this  man." 

"  I  will  stand  between  them,"  said  Hein- 
rich ;  "  you  need  not  be  afraid.  But  you 
are  not  thinking  of  going  away,  are  you  ?  " 
he  added  anxiously. 

"  No,"  said  Gottfried,  a  little  uncertainly, 
"  I  am  not  thinking  of  it ;  but  I  don't 
know  "  — 

He  left  the  sentence  uncompleted,  and 
again  Heinrich  looked  at  him  curiously. 
Gottfried  noticed  the  glance  and  flushed. 

"  I  must  go  to  the  studio,"  he  said ;  "  I 
have  a  picture  to  finish." 

He  turned  off  at  the  corner,  looking  back 
with  an  "  Auf  Wiedersehen"  to  cover  the 
abruptness  of  his  departure. 

Heinrich  had  walked  but  a  few  blocks 
farther,  when  he  overtook  Constance  Wil- 
bur, returning  home  from  her  round  of 
lessons. 

He  slackened  his  pace  to  keep  step  with 
her,  and  began  talking  of  trivial  things. 


A   STRANGE   DISAPPEARANCE         113 

But  all  the  while  his  thoughts  were  busy 
with  Gottfried ;  his  mysterious  business, 
his  solicitude  about  Constance,  and  the  un- 
finished affair  with  Rex  Carrington.  He 
stole  sidelong  glances  at  the  profile  of  the 
face  beside  him,  and  noted  again  the  beauty 
of  outline  and  coloring  and  the  sweetness 
and  purity  of  expression. 

"  No  wonder  Gottfried  loves  her,"  he 
thought,  "  for  he  is  an  artist." 

Then  he  thought  of  a  face  that  was  not 
beautiful,  and  yet  could  thrill  him  as  no 
other  face  had  ever  done.  At  the  thought, 
he  inquired  after  Miss  Burroughs. 

"  Come  up  this  evening  with  Gottfried," 
said  Constance,  smiling,  "  and  I  will  ask  her 
in,  and  Gottfried  shall  make  us  one  of  his 
rarebits." 

Accordingly,  Heinrich  Dierssen  stopped 
that  evening  at  Gottfried's  studio,  only  to 
find  it  deserted. 

"  Sure,  and  I  have  n't  seen  him  since  he 
wint  out  this  afternoon,"  Mrs.  Flanuigan 
replied  to  his  inquiries ;  "  and  it 's  as  un- 


114  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

certain  as  the  weather  in  the  spring-time  he 
is.  But  as  long  as  he  pays  his  rint,  what 's 
that  to  me,  if  he  is  n't  here  half  the  time  ? 
And  I  ask  no  questions,  and  niver  a  word 
does  he  tell  me  where  he  goes.  Faith,  and 
his  pupils  are  all  lavin'  him,  and  a  shame  it 
is,  with  him  such  a  foine  painter." 

"  If  he  comes  back  this  evening,"  said 
Heinrich  as  he  turned  away,  "tell  him  to 
come  up  to  Miss  Wilbur's ;  we  are  expect- 
ing him." 

Ten  minutes  later  he  was  trying  to  excuse 
Gottfried  to  Constance.  When  the  girl  saw 
he  was  alone,  she  had  turned  white  and  de- 
tained him  in  the  hall  to  question  him. 

"When  did  you  see  him  last?"  she 
asked. 

"  He  walked  with  me  on  the  street  a  few 
blocks  this  afternoon,"  said  Heinrich. 

"  And  where  did  he  go  ?  "  persisted  Con- 
stance. "  To  his  studio  ?  " 

"Yes,"  the  young  man  replied.  "He 
seemed  to  be  in  a  hurry ;  he  said  he  had  a 
picture  to  finish." 


A  STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         115 

"  Did  he  say  anything  about  going  away  ?  " 
asked  Constance  anxiously. 

"Well,  yes,"  admitted  Heinrich,  afraid 
of  saying  too  much.  "  He  said  he  had  busi- 
ness that  might  call  him  away  suddenly  at 
any  time.  But  he  did  not  expect  to  go 
away  at  present." 

"  In  that  case,"  said  Constance  quietly, 
"  he  will  probably  come  later." 

As  they  entered  the  room,  Emma  Bur- 
roughs blushed  prettily,  and  for  a  moment 
Heinrich  forgot  Gottfried  and  Constance  in 
his  pleasure  at  seeing  her.  Constance  was 
amazed  at  the  transformation  that  had  taken 
place  in  the  little  dressmaker.  The  lines 
were  gone  from  her  face  and  the  dull  look 
from  her  eyes.  She  wore  a  pretty  waist  of 
^>ale  silk,  and  her  blond  hair  was  dressed 
in  the  latest  mode.  But  perhaps  it  was  not 
so  much  the  change  of  dress  as  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  happiness  that  made  her  look 
ten  years  younger  than  when  Constance 
first  saw  her. 

Mrs.  Wilbur  looked  up  in  surprise  when 
she  saw  that  Heinrich  was  alone. 


116  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Where  is  Gottfried  ?  "  she  asked,  and 
the  young  man  thought  he  detected  the  same 
shadow  on  her  face  that  had  clouded  the 
girl's  on  his  arrival. 

"  He  was  not  at  the  studio,  mamma,"  the 
girl  interposed  hastily.  "  Mr.  Dierssen  left 
word  for  him  to  come  up  if  he  returned." 

They  passed  the  evening  playing  bezique, 
Heinrich  drawing  a  table  up  to  the  invalid's 
couch  that  she  might  participate  in  the 
game.  Constance  strained  her  ears  at  the 
sound  of  every  footstep  on  the  sidewalk ; 
but  the  welcome  click  of  the  gate-latch  did 
not  follow,  nor  the  familiar  tread  up  the 
little  paved  walk.  The  evening  passed,  and 
Gottfried  did  not  come.  Constance  referred 
to  him  but  once,  and  then  indirectly.  As 
she  served  Eussian  tea  and  wafers,  she  re- 
marked that  she  was  sorry  Hamlet  had  been 
left  out  of  the  play,  the  rarebit  out  of  the 
feast. 

Late  that  night  Heinrich  Dierssen  sat  in 
his  little  office,  as  yet  unvisited  by  patients, 
and  pored  over  lengthy  German  medical 


A   STRANGE   DISAPPEARANCE         117 

treatises ;  but  he  did  not  find  what  he 
sought. 

"  If  there  is  a  mystery  about  Gottfried 
Jager's  life,"  he  soliloquized,  as  he  closed 
with  a  bang  the  heavy  tome  he  had  been 
reading,  "  I  am  going  to  solve  it.  When 
he  turns  up  again,  I  will  not  lose  sight  of 
him,  but  will  follow  him  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  if  need  be.  It  is  a  shame  for  a  man 
with  a  mystery  in  his  life  to  make  a  girl 
like  Constance  Wilbur  love  him  and  fret 
out  her  heart  over  him.  What  if  it  was 
little  Emma  ?  "  and  involuntarily  his  hands 
clenched  at  the  thought. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  he  found  oppor- 
tunity to  put  into  effect  his  determination 
concerning  Gottfried  ;  for  weeks  passed  and 
nothing  was  seen  of  the  painter.  The  dust 
settled  thicker  on  the  tables  and  chairs  in 
the  studio,  which  Mrs.  Flannigan  was  espe- 
cially forbidden  to  disturb  with  her  icono- 
clastic duster  and  broom ;  and  the  unfin- 
ished portrait  on  the  easel  smiled  with  the 
sweet,  wondering  eyes  of  youth  on  the  unac- 


118  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

customed  disorder  of  the  deserted  place. 
Cobwebs  traced  themselves  about  the  cor- 
ners and  hung  in  filmy  festoons  from  the 
ceiling.  The  plant  on  the  window-sill  Mrs. 
Flannigan  did  not  have  the  heart  to  leave 
untended,  and  had  removed  to  her  own 
rooms.  The  blind  was  drawn  and  hung 
like  a  curtain  of  mystery  before  the  eyes  of 
Constance  as  she  passed. 

One  by  one  his  pupils  fell  away  from 
him,  leaving  word  with  Mrs.  Flannigan  that 
they  had  found  another  teacher.  Orders  for 
work  he  had  taken  were  countermanded, 
and  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  mail  lay  on 
his  writing-desk,  unopened  and  covered  with 
dust. 

Once,  nearly  a  month  after  his  disappear- 
ance, Heinrich  would  have  sworn  that  he 
saw  him  on  a  bicycle,  racing  with  half  a 
dozen  "scorchers"  on  the  road  to  Santa 
Monica ;  but  he  knew  that  Gottfried  did 
not  ride.  In  his  anxiety  for  his  friend  and 
his  indignation  over  the  ill-suppressed  un- 
happiness  of  Constance,  he  had  entertained 


A   STRANGE  DISAPPEARANCE         119 

wild  thoughts  of  referring  the  matter  to  the 
police;  but  he  shrank  from  exposing  his 
friend  to  publicity,  and  he  felt  that  Con- 
stance would  oppose  any  action  unsanctioned 
by  Gottfried  himself. 

So  the  days  passed  into  weeks,  and  the 
summer  began  to  wane.  Constance  had 
grown  listless  and  pale,  and  the  curves  of 
her  cheeks  had  thinned,  bringing  out  the 
prominence  of  the  wide  brow  and  the  little 
pointed  chin,  till  the  face  wore  more  than  its 
usual  semblance  to  the  shape  of  a  heart. 
Even  Heinrich  Dierssen  noticed  it,  and  when 
he  saw  her  muttered  under  his  breath,  "  Das 
arme  fferz." 


IX 

AVALON 

GOTTFRIED  awoke  with  the  thought  of  the 
unfinished  portrait  in  his  mind,  and  opened 
his  eyes,  eager  to  get  to  work.  Then  he 
opened  them  wider  and  stared  about  him 
in  astonishment.  Instead  of  his  bed-room, 
with  the  door  open  into  the  studio  so  that 
he  could  see  the  pictured  face  of  Constance 
in  his  first  moment  of  consciousness,  he 
gazed  upon  a  strange  interior,  with  which 
he  was  entirely  unfamiliar.  He  was  cer- 
tainly in  a  tent,  for  the  walls  were  canvas, 
and  so  thin  that  he  could  hear  the  murmur 
of  voices  in  an  adjoining  room.  The  place 
was  bare,  furnished  only  with  two  double 
beds,  a  bureau,  a  washstand,  and  two  or 
three  chairs.  On  the  bureau  stood  a  tallow 
candle  and  several  empty  champagne  bottles. 
His  satchel  stood  open  in  the  middle  of  the 


AVALON  121 

floor,  and  his  clothing  and  toilet  articles 
were  scattered  about  the  room.  Outside  he 
heard  a  steamer  whistle,  and  the  beat  of  the 
surf  on  the  shore. 

"  "What  in  the  name  of  heaven  am  I  doing 
here  ?  "  he  exclaimed.  "  And  where  am  I, 
anyway?"  he  added,  wonderingly. 

Surely  it  was  only  last  night  he  had  held 
the  heart-face  in  his  hands  and  kissed  the 
little  pointed  chin  as  Constance  stood  with 
him  at  the  doorway ;  the  night  he  had  come 
back  to  her  after  their  trip  to  Echo  Moun- 
tain. Surely  it  was  only  last  night  he  had 
added  to  the  face  on  the  canvas  the  lumi- 
nous expression  that  had  flashed  into  the 
living  face  at  that  blissful  moment.  It  was 
only  last  night  he  had  gone  to  bed  with  the 
thought  that  he  would  see  the  wonderful 
new  beauty  of  the  canvas  radiating  its  love 
on  him  when  he  first  opened  his  eyes,  and 
thinking  thus  had  fallen  asleep  and  dreamed 
of  her  as  the  Madonna,  God  pity  him,  with 
the  child  in  her  arms. 

And  now  —  the  bare   room,  the  canvas 


122  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

walls,  the  murmured  voices,  and  the  inex- 
plicable sound  of  the  sea  ! 

He  jumped  up,  and,  dragging  a  chair  in 
front  of  the  door,  from  whose  lock  hung  the 
long  wooden  tag  of  a  key,  with  a  painted 
number,  he  sprang  up  and  looked  through 
the  open  transom  over  the  door.  He  drew 
in  his  breath  with  an  involuntary  exclama- 
tion of  delight.  The  scene  he  looked  upon 
was  picturesque  and  beautiful  in  the  ex- 
treme. Curved  crescent-like  was  a  lovely 
bay,  that  formed  almost  a  perfect  semicircle, 
with  high  bluffs  jutting  out  at  the  points. 
The  shore-line  could  not  have  been  more 
than  a  mile  in  extent,  and  was  fringed 
with  hotels,  pretty  villas,  and  open  bazaars. 
On  either  side,  and,  presumably,  back  of 
him,  rose  hills  of  a  golden  brown,  the  color 
modified  by  low  brush  and  cactus.  Already 
there  were  bathers  in  the  surf,  and  the 
wharf  was  crowded  with  people.  A  pretty 
little  vessel  was  evidently  making  ready  to 
leave  port,  its  decks  already  filling  with  pas- 
sengers, who  were  nodding  and  waving  their 


AVALON  123 

handkerchiefs  to  friends  on  shore.  The 
name  of  the  steamer  caught  his  eye  —  Her- 
mosa.  He  had  heard  it  before,  he  was  sure ; 
but  he  could  not  remember  in  what  connec- 
tion. On  the  blue  water,  near  the  pebbly 
shore,  lay  a  number  of  little  boats,  and  a 
small  steam-yacht  was  anchored  by  the  bath- 
house. Beyond  it  all,  melting  imperceptibly 
into  the  deep  blue  of  the  sky,  was  the  illim- 
itable stretch  of  sea. 

He  turned  away  at  last,  and  proceeded  to 
make  his  toilet  in  a  leisurely  manner,  listen- 
ing to  the  conversation  on  the  other  side  of 
the  canvas  with  the  hope  of  learifing  his 
locality. 

As  he  carefully  adjusted  his  tie  in  front 
of  the  glass,  he  pushed  the  empty  bottles 
aside  impatiently. 

"  Must  have  been  left  by  my  predecessor," 
he  muttered  ;  *'  I  'm  sure  my  purse  would  n't 
stand  four  bottles  of  champagne." 

The  conversation  of  his  unknown  neigh- 
bors had  so  far  been  confined  to  plans  for 
the  day's  fishing,  but  suddenly  it  took  a  new 
turn. 


124  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Hurry  up,  old  fellow,  and  get  ready  for 
breakfast,"  said  one  voice.  "  They  won't 
have  a  thing  at  the  hotel  fit  to  eat  if  you 
wait  much  longer.  The  perennial  yellow- 
tail  will  be  cold,  and  I  don't  care  for  cold 
fish." 

"But  it 's  beastly  early,"  yawned  the  other 
voice.  "  Nevertheless,  I  suppose  I  must  yield 
to  the  inevitable,  you  standing,  as  usual, 
for  the  inevitable."  And  there  was  another 
sound  of  springs  and  thud  of  feet,  followed 
by  sundry  splashings,  and  scraping  of  chairs, 
and  snapping  of  the  locks  of  valises. 

Gottfried  conceived  a  brilliant  idea.  He 
would  wait  till  the  men  came  out,  and  follow 
them  to  the  "  hotel,"  where  it  was  evidently 
the  proper  thing  to  breakfast.  He  would 
leave  it  to  chance  to  discover  where  he  was, 
without  betraying  his  mysterious  ignorance, 
and  would  determine  his  course  of  action  to 
suit  the  circumstances. 

Accordingly,  he  finished  his  toilet,  and 
occupied  the  time  of  waiting  by  ransacking 
his  valise  for  his  sketch-book,  as  he  wanted 


AVALON  125 

to  take  away  with  him  a  picture  of  the  place, 
to  elaborate  into  a  painting  at  his  leisure. 
But  to  his  astonishment  he  found  no  sketch- 
book, and  no  trace  of  artist's  materials. 

"  What  possessed  me  to  come  to  a  place 
like  this  without  them  ? "  he  muttered. 
"  Poor  little  Constance,  how  can  I  ever 
explain  things  to  her?  She  will  pass  my 
window  this  morning,  and  look  for  me  in 
vain.  And  how  do  I  know  I  am  not  at  the 
antipodes  ?  Mein  Gott  /  "  he  burst  out 
suddenly,  "  if  I  have  n't  seen  a  curve  like 
that  bay  somewhere  in  a  picture  of  Naples. 
A  pretty  fix  I  'm  in  if  I  Ve  landed  in  Eu- 
rope with  only  twenty-five  dollars  in  my 
pockets."  For  that  was  all  the  cash  that 
had  rewarded  his  search  through  his  various 
effects. 

At  that  moment  the  door  in  the  adjoining 
room  opened,  and  he  hastened  out  just  in 
time  to  encounter  two  young  men  on  the 
narrow  board  walk  in  front  of  his  door. 

"  Hello,  old  chap !  "  one  of  them  ex- 
claimed, familiarly,  "  you  look  rather  seedy 


126  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

this  morning.  Too  much  champagne,  eh  ?  " 
which  seemed  very  unjust  to  Gottfried,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  neither  his  purse  nor 
his  inclination  permitted  him  to  indulge  in 
anything  stronger  than  an  occasional  glass 
of  beer. 

"Oh!  I'm  all  right,"  he  said,  with  as- 
sumed indifference.  "The  bay  looks  in- 
viting this  morning,  does  n't  it  ?  "  he  added, 
tentatively. 

"  Yes,  I  wish  you  did  n't  have  to  go  back 
to-day,"  one  of  the  young  men  rejoined. 
"  It 's  too  bad  to  miss  the  fishing,  especially 
such  an  angler  as  you." 

Gottfried  flushed  a  little  resentfully.  If 
he  was  a  poor  fisherman,  it  was  not  pleasant 
to  have  the  fact  cast  in  one's  face  in  that 
sarcastic  manner.  But  the  man  continued, 
enthusiastically. 

"That  haul  of  yours  yesterday  was  the 
biggest  one  made  this  summer,  so  I  heard," 
he  said. 

By  this  time  they  had  reached  the  hotel. 
Gottfried  looked  for  the  name,  and  saw  it 


AVALON  127 

was  the  Grand  View.  The  words  brought 
no  association  of  ideas  to  his  mind.  He 
followed  his  companions  into  the  dining- 
room,  and  sat  down  with  them  at  the  table. 
This  seemed  to  be  the  usual  thing,  for  there 
was  no  evidence  of  surprise.  Several  guests 
at  other  tables  bowed  to  him,  and  he  returned 
the  salutation,  although  he  had  not  the  faint- 
est recollection  of  their  faces. 

"  Got  your  traps  packed  ? "  said  one  of 
his  companions.  "The  steamer  starts  in 
half  an  hour,  you  know." 

"No,"  Gottfried  replied,  "but  I  can 
throw  them  together  in  five  minutes." 

He  wondered  uneasily  where  he  was  ex- 
pected to  go,  and  if  he  had  enough  money 
to  buy  his  ticket. 

"  Well,"  said  one  of  the  men,  as  they  rose 
from  the  table  some  fifteen  minutes  later, 
"  we  '11  see  you  in  Los  Angeles  when  we  get 
back  from  Catalina.  Glad  to  have  met 
you,"  and  he  held  out  his  hand. 

Gottfried  took  it  with  a  sigh  of  relief. 
He  was  not  far  from  home,  after  all ;  only 


128  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

a  few  hours'  ride  on  the  steamer.  He  had 
always  wanted  to  visit  Catalina  Island,  but 
had  never  felt  that  he  could  afford  the  trip. 
However,  he  determined,  now  that  he  was 
here,  that  he  would  remain  over  another  day, 
and  make  some  sketches  before  he  left.  He 
kept  his  own  counsel,  however,  and  it  was 
with  a  sense  of  relief  that  he  saw  his  two 
companions  row  out  on  the  Bay  of  Avalon. 
He  had  been  in  constant  dread  of  betraying 
in  their  presence  his  inexplicable  ignorance, 
and  dared  not  accompany  them  on  their  fish- 
ing excursion ;  for  whatever  he  might  do  in 
the  irresponsible  condition  he  had  evidently 
been  in  the  day  before,  he  knew  that  in 
ordinary  circumstances  he  would  do  any- 
thing but  distinguish  himself  as  an  angler. 

He  sat  down  on  the  veranda  of  the  hotel 
and  felt  in  his  pocket  for  his  meerschaum. 
It  was  not  there,  but  his  search  was  re- 
warded by  the  discovery  of  a  cigar  of  the 
finest  brand.  He  was  surprised,  for  he 
never  smoked  cigars.  He  put  it  back  in 
his  pocket  and  sat  in  ruminative  silence.  A 


AVALON  129 

merry  party  came  out  of  the  door  with  lunch- 
baskets  and  fishing-reels. 

"It's  a  lovely  day  to  go  around  the 
island,"  one  of  them  remarked. 

"  Is  that  the  yacht  by  the  bath-house  ?  " 
asked  a  young  lady  in  glasses. 

"Yes,"  was  the  reply;  "did  you  bring 
your  sketch-book  ?  " 

The  girl  nodded,  and  Gottfried  was  seized 
with  a  sudden  desire  to  take  the  trip  and 
make  sketches  too ;  but  he  remembered  in 
despair  that  he  had  no  materials  with  him. 
It  was  too  early  for  the  stores  to  open,  and 
the  yacht  would  start  in  a  few  minutes.  He 
recollected,  however,  a  pad  of  writing-paper 
and  some  pencils  in  his  satchel,  and  he 
dashed  down  to  the  tent  to  get  them. 

As  he  returned,  he  was  met  at  the  door 
by  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel.  The  steamer 
was  just  leaving  the  wharf. 

"  I  thought  you  were  going  back  this 
morning,"  the  man  said  in  surprise. 

"  I  decided  to  remain  over  and  take  the 
trip  around  the  island,"  Gottfried  replied 
carelessly. 


130  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

"  But  you  went  around  the  island  Satur- 
day," exclaimed  the  man. 

Gottfried  started,  but  immediately  recov- 
ered himself. 

"  I  want  to  go  again  and  make  some 
sketches,"  he  said. 

"  By  the  way,"  the  landlord  said,  as  he 
turned  to  reenter  the  hotel,  "  you  can  have 
a  room  in  the  house  now,  if  you  care  to 
change.  Some  parties  went  away  this  morn- 
ing." 

"  I  won't  bother  now,"  said  Gottfried ; 
"  the  tent 's  good  enough."  And  he  picked 
up  his  overcoat  and  went  down  to  the  yacht. 

The  boat  steamed  slowly  out  of  the  bay, 
the  curved  shore-line,  fringed  with  the  pic- 
turesque villas  and  white  tents  of  Avalon  set 
against  a  background  of  rugged  brown  hills, 
receding  in  the  distance. 

Gottfried  sat  on  the  deck,  making  rapid 
outlines  on  the  writing-paper  he  had  brought 
with  him. 

"  Why,"  said  a  soft  voice  at  his  side,  "  I 
did  not  know  you  could  sketch." 


AVAL  ON  131 

He  looked  up  and  smiled  into  a  pair  of 
bright  eyes  that  were  gazing  at  him  through 
glasses.  He  noticed  that  the  face  under 
the  sailor  hat  was  young  and  softly  curved. 
The  girl  seemed  to  know  him,  after  the 
manner  of  seaside  acquaintance,  for  she 
spoke  without  hesitation. 

"  I  was  stupid  enough  not  to  bring  my 
sketching  materials,"  he  rejoined ;  "  but  I 
have  resorted  to  these  in  desperation." 

"  Let  me  share  mine  with  you,"  she  said, 
drawing  several  sheets  from  her  portfolio, 
and  extracting  a  pencil  from  her  case.  "  I 
am  sure  you  will  make  better  use  of  them 
than  I  can,"  she  added,  as  he  accepted  the 
proffer  with  a  word  of  protest. 

Notwithstanding  Gottfried's  uneasiness 
and  sense  of  being  adrift  in  the  sea  of 
events,  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  day's 
trip.  A  continued  panorama  of  picturesque 
surprises  was  unrolled  before  them.  The 
island,  of  volcanic  origin,  showed  them  al- 
ways its  steep,  brown  heights,  dotted  here 
and  there  with  shrubs  and  stunted  trees,  and 


132  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

covered  with  cactus.  Occasionally,  there 
was  a  little  pebble  beach,  or  a  cove  large 
enough  for  a  house  or  two ;  but  always  be- 
hind them  were  the  wild,  bare  bluffs.  In 
some  places  the  rocks  rose  like  walls  and 
battlements,  stained  with  rich  hues  of  green 
and  crimson  and  rose.  They  passed  the 
island  of  Seal  Rocks,  and  heard  the  hoarse 
cries  of  its  clumsy  denizens  as  they  came  out 
to  warm  themselves  in  the  sun.  Just  at 
noon  they  rounded  a  cape  of  magnificently 
colored  walls  and  turrets  of  solid  rock, 
and  came  into  the  harbor  of  Cataliua  Bay. 
Here,  on  a  little  stretch  of  level  ground,  the 
largest  in  the  island,  save  the  site  of  Avalon, 
they  were  to  take  lunch. 

The  lady  in  glasses  looked  at  Gottfried 
and  laughed. 

"  You  are  an  example  of  the  improvidence 
of  man,"  she  said.  "  I  see  that  you  forgot 
not  only  your  sketching  materials,  but  your 
lunch  as  well.  You  must  join  our  party." 

The  others  seconded  her  invitation,  insist- 
ing that  he  was  entitled  to  a  share,  as  it  all 


AVAL  ON  133 

came  from  the  hotel.  Accordingly  he  landed 
with  them,  and  assisted  in  finding  a  spot  on 
the  hillside  free  of  cactus,  where  they  spread 
out  their  lunch.  It  was  a*  merry  party,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  there  had  been 
no  formal  introductions  and  the  names  of 
several  were  unknown  to  the  others.  Gott- 
fried learned,  however,  that  his  friend  in 
glasses  was  Miss  Fay,  of  San  Diego. 

In  the  afternoon,  as  Gottfried  sat  on  the 
deck,  watching  the  fishers  who  were  draw- 
ing in  large  yellow-tails,  that  fell  struggling 
over  the  side  of  the  boat,  one  of  the  anglers 
turned  and  spoke  to  him. 

"You  can  get  a  room  at  the  Metropole 
now,"  he  said  ;  "  we  're  not  much  more  than 
half  full  since  the  steamer  left  this  morning. 
It  was  a  beastly  shame  you  had  to  go  to  an- 
other hotel." 

"  That  's  all  right,"  said  Gottfried  cau- 
tiously ;  "  I  'm  going  back  to  Los  Angeles 
to-morrow." 

"  Strange  the  way  the  season  closes  here," 
continued  the  first  speaker.  "  By  next  week 


134  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

the  hotels  will  all  be  closed  ;  and  as  for  the 
camping  tourists,  they  will  fold  their  tents 
like  the  Arabs  and  steal  away  as  suddenly, 
if  not  so  silently." 

As  they  neared  the  shore  in  the  evening, 
having  made  the  circuit  of  sixty  miles  about 
the  island,  and  Avalon  came  again  into  view, 
half-shrouded  in  twilight,  Gottfried  hastily 
added  the  finishing  touches  to  the  sketch  he 
had  commenced  in  the  morning. 

A  few  moments  later,  when  they  stepped 
from  the  gang-plank  to  the  shore,  Miss  Fay 
turned  to  Gottfried. 

"  Are  you  going  up  to  the  post-office  ?  " 
she  said.  "  If  so,  will  you  ask  for  me,  Stella 
Fay?" 

"  With  pleasure,"  said  Gottfried  ;  and  as 
the  rest  of  the  party  went  up  to  the  hotel, 
he  turned  down  the  main  street,  wondering 
where  the  post-office  was.  Instinctively  he 
followed  a  stream  of  people  up  a  side  street, 
and  soon  found  himself  standing  in  a  line 
before  the  post-office  window,  which  opened 
directly  on  the  street. 


AVALON  135 

As  the  man  in  front  of  him  turned  away, 
and  he  stepped  up  to  the  window,  the  clerk 
shook  his  head. 

"  Nothing  for  you  this  evening,"  he  said. 

"Anything  for  Miss  Stella  Fay?"  asked 
Gottfried,  restraining  his  surprise. 

The  clerk  handed  out  a  paper,  and  as 
Gottfried  turned  away,  he  glanced  at  it  care- 
lessly. 

In  a  moment,  he  started  and  stood  still. 
The  paper  was  folded  in  such  a  way  that  the 
date  was  visible  above  the  wrapper.  Gott- 
fried looked  at  it  in  amazement.  Since  the 
night  he  had  last  seen  Constance,  and  the 
day  he  had  called  on  Miss  Ferris,  the  recol- 
lection of  which  had  suddenly  returned  to 
him,  nearly  two  months  had  elapsed;  and 
it  seemed  to  him  but  two  days.  The  inter- 
vening period  was  a  total  blank  in  his  mind. 

Startled  and  dazed,  he  stumbled  on  to  the 
hotel ;  and  having  delivered  the  mail  to  Miss 
Fay,  declined  to  go  to  the  dining-room  on 
the  plea  of  a  headache,  and  sought  the  pri- 
vacy of  his  tent-room. 


136  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Here  he  threw  himself  upon  the  bed,  and, 
momentarily  forgetful  of  the  thinness  of  the 
walls,  groaned  aloud.  He  could  no  longer 
conceal  the  truth  from  himself.  He  must 
be  subject  to  attacks  of  dementia,  on  recov- 
ering from  which  he  had  no  recollection  of 
the  period  during  which  it  lasted.  It  must 
be  these  repeated  attacks  that  had  made  his 
early  life  fade  more  and  more  into  a  nebu- 
lous past,  and  only  the  last  few  months  seem 
in  any  way  living  and  real.  That  he  had 
been  apparently  sane  during  the  last  of  these 
attacks  seemed  probable  from  the  remarks 
of  the  people  about  him  ;  but  if  the  pheno- 
mena continued,  he  feared  they  would  result 
in  permanent  madness ;  and  he  blamed  him- 
self unsparingly  for  having  won  the  love  of 
Constance.  Yet,  when  he  first  met  her,  he 
was  hardly  aware  of  his  infirmity ;  it  was 
only  when  she  chided  him  in  her  gentle  way 
for  missing  the  concert'  that  he  really  knew 
his  lapses  of  memory  were  anything  more 
serious  than  an  occasional  fit  of  absent- 
mindedness.  Even  when  he  had  spoken  to 


AVALON  137 

her  vaguely  of  business  in  the  country,  he 
did  not  think  he  had  been  really  away,  but 
that  he  had  slept ;  or,  perhaps,  had  tempo- 
rarily forgotten  all  other  things  in  the  ex- 
citement of  work.  But  now,  his  strange 
surroundings  and  the  evidence  that  he  had 
taken  part  in  events  of  which  he  had  no  re- 
collection, forced  upon  him  a  recognition 
of  the  more  serious  nature  of  his  malady. 

"  I  must  go  back,"  he  said,  "  and  tell  her 
everything  and  release  her,  though  it  should 
break  my  heart  to  do  so.  But  first,"  he 
pondered,  "  I  will  call  on  Miss  Ferris  again, 
and  make  her  tell  me  the  truth.  It  may  be 
it  was  no  fancied  resemblance  that  she  saw 
in  the  face  in  the  locket.  It  may  be  she 
holds  the  key  to  the  mystery." 

He  passed  a  restless  night,  full  of  impa- 
tience to  return  to  Los  Angeles  ;  and  in  the 
early  morning  he  stood  on  the  deck  of  the 
Hermosa,  waving  his  hat  to  a  little  knot 
of  acquaintances  on  the  shore.  Slowly  the 
boat  swept  out  on  the  calm  blue  waves,  and 
the  beautiful  bay  and  Avalon  guarded  by 


138  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

its  beetling  heights  grew  misty  and  faint  in 
the  distance. 

Gottfried  leaned  over  the  railing  of  the 
deck  and  watched  the  magic  picture  fade. 
Mysterious  and  unsatisfactory  as  his  visit 
to  Catalina  had  been,  the  place  was  full  of 
charm,  and  in  his  artist's  soul  he  felt  a  pang 
at  leaving  it.  But  the  thought  of  Constance 
stirred  in  his  heart  and  brought  sudden  tears 
to  his  eyes. 

It  was  over  at  last,  the  soft,  undulating 
motion  of  the  boat,  and  the  serene  stretches 
of  blue  sky  and  purple  sea.  He  found  him- 
self in  the  throng  at  San  Pedro,  rushing 
with  the  rest  for  the  train.  A  swift  passage 
over  sandy  stretches  and  between  young  or- 
chards and  cultivated  fields,  and  he  was 
again  in  the  Arcade  Station  in  Los  Angeles, 
for  the  first  time  on  familiar  ground.  It 
was  about  noon,  and  he  took  a  car  for  the 
coifee-house  he  frequented. 


A    BROKEN    PROMISE 

As  he  entered  and  sat  down  at  a  table,  he 
was  confronted  by  a  familiar  face.  It  was 
that  of  Heinrich  Dierssen. 

"  Hello !  "  said  the  latter,  jumping  to  his 
feet  and  holding  out  his  hand.  "  What  part 
of  the  sky  did  you  drop  from,  and  when  did 
you  arrive  ?  Give  an  account  of  yourself." 

He  spoke  in  German,  as  he  always  did 
when  with  Gottfried. 

"I  have  been  away — on  business,"  said 
Gottfried  evasively.  He  could  not  bring 
himself  to  tell  the  truth.  How  could  he 
know  how  Heinrich  would  take  his  story  ? 
He  might  want  to  incarcerate  him  in  an 
asylum. 

Heinrich  turned  on  him  almost  savagely. 

"  Look  here,  old  fellow,"  he  said,  "  that 
won't  do.  What  business  could  be  so  ab- 
sorbing as  not  to  leave  you  time  to  write  to 


140  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

your  fiancee  for  two  months  ?  She  is  look- 
ing pale  and  worn ;  paler  than  my  little 
Emma  was  when  I  first  met  her." 

"  Mein  armes  Liebchen"  murmured  Gott- 
fried, dropping  his  face  on  his  hand.  Then 
he  turned  suddenly  on  his  friend,  his  eyes 
flashing.  "Tell  me,  Heinrich,"  he  said, 
"  do  you  think  I  'm  a  brute  ?  Do  you  think 
I  would  have  treated  her  like  that  if  I  had 
been  able  to  do  otherwise?  I  cannot  ex- 
plain to  you,  but  won't  you  take  my  word 
for  it?  You  don't  mean,  Dierssen,"  he  ex- 
claimed in  sudden  irritation,  "  that  you  are 
going  to  go  back  on  a  fellow  just  when  he 
needs  a  friend  the  most  ?  " 

With  an  impulse  of  contrition,  Heinrich 
held  out  his  hand  across  the  table,  and  Gott- 
fried took  it. 

"  I  '11  take  your  word  for  it,  Gottfried," 
he  said.  "  But  perhaps  if  you  would  trust 
me  I  might  help  you,  for  you  seem  to  be  in 
trouble." 

"I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,  Heinrich," 
said  Gottfried.  "  I  have  some  business  to 


A   BROKEN  PROMISE  141 

attend  to  this  afternoon,  and  this  evening  I 
must  go  to  see  Constance.  Come  to  the 
studio  about  ten  o'clock,  and  if  I  'm  not 
back  wait  for  me,  and  I  will  tell  you  my 
trouble  and  ask  your  advice." 

With  that  Heinrich  was  forced  to  be  con- 
tent. 

An  hour  later,  Gottfried  found  himself 
again  at  the  door  of  the  Ferris  residence  on 
Adams  Street.  Now  that  he  felt  himself  on 
the  threshold  of  a  discovery,  his  heart  sank 
with  foreboding.  What  might  he  not  learn 
that  would  separate  him  from  Constance 
forever?  What  horror,  hitherto  invisible, 
might  not  be  disclosed  to  him?  He  felt 
tempted  to  retreat,  but  already  there  were 
footsteps  in  the  hall. 

The  servant  that  answered  his  ring  was 
not  the  same  that  had  admitted  him  on  the 
occasion  of  his  previous  call,  and  to  Gott- 
fried's relief,  he  gave  no  indication  of  re- 
cognition. 

"  Is  Miss  Ferris  at  home  ?  "  asked  Gott- 
fried,  steadying  his  voice  with  an  effort. 


142  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"No,  sir,"  was  the  reply.  "The  family 
have  gone  to  Coronado  for  a  month." 

Gottfried  whitened. 

"  When  did  they  go  ?  "  he  asked. 

"Yesterday  morning,"  was  the  reply. 

As  Gottfried  turned  away,  he  thought 
with  bitterness  of  his  last  day's  pleasure  at 
Catalina. 

"If  I  had  come  home  at  once,  I  would 
have  found  her  here,"  he  said  to  himself. 
"And  now  —  I  must  go  to  Constance  and 
tell  her  —  what  ?  Oh !  mein  Liebchen, 
mein  Liebchen,  how  can  I  give  you  up  ? " 
and  tears  of  which  he  was  not  ashamed  rose 
to  his  eyes. 

It  was  that  afternoon  that  Heinrich  saw 
Constance  on  the  street.  He  stopped  and 
shook  hands  with  her. 

"  Did  you  know  that  Gottfried  has  come 
back  ?  "  he  said. 

A  sudden  joy  flashed  across  the  girl's  face 
and  shone  in  her  eyes. 

"  When,  where  ?  "  she  asked  tremulously. 
For  a  moment  her  brain  reeled,  and  it  was 


A   BROKEN  PROMISE  143 

black  before  her  eyes.  The  intensity  of 
emotion  passed,  and  she  heard  Heinrich's 
voice  as  in  a  dream. 

"  He  came  to  the  coffee-house  as  usual. 
He  would  not  tell  me  where  he  had  been, 
but  he  said  he  was  coming  to  see  you  this 
evening." 

"Thank  you,"  said  Constance  simply; 
and  for  a  moment  she  lifted  to  his  face  eyes 
that  were  full  of  tenderness  and  joy. 

She  passed  on,  and  Heinrich  muttered 
under  his  breath.  It  was  well  for  Gott- 
fried's faith  in  his  friendship  that  he  did 
not  hear  what  he  said. 

That  evening,  when  Constance  had  cleared 
the  little  table  and  put  the  house  in  order, 
she  stood  at  her  mirror  looking  sorrowfully 
at  the  reflection  of  her  face.  It  was  thin 
and  worn,  and  she  was  afraid  that  Gott- 
fried would  miss  in  it  the  olden  charm.  But 
excitement  had  brought  a  pretty  color  to  her 
cheeks,  and  although  she  did  not  know  it, 
love  and  sorrow  had  etherealized  the  face  to 
a  higher  type  of  beauty. 


144  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

She  let  down  the  masses  of  her  bright 
hair,  and  brushed  it  until  it  shone  like 
threads  of  gold.  Then  she  piled  it  like  a 
crown  on  her  head,  studying  the  effect  anx- 
iously in  the  glass. 

She  put  on  a  house-gown  of  soft,  pale 
rose,  the  color  that  Gottfried  liked  best,  and 
fastened  about  her  neck  the  silver  chain 
on  which  was  suspended  the  locket  he  had 
given  her.  She  stopped  a  moment  to  open  it 
and  kiss  the  face  that  looked  out  at  her  with 
tender  eyes.  She  fastened  fragrant  lilies  at 
her  throat  and  in  her  hair.  Her  hands  had 
trembled  so  with  eager  excitement  that  they 
could  scarcely  perform  their  tasks,  but  all 
the  time  the  heart-throbs  she  could  feel  were 
beating  a  rhythm  of  joy.  Gottfried  had 
come  back  to  her ;  he  was  not  lost  out  of 
her  life. 

She  went  to  her  mother's  room  and,  bend- 
ing down,  kissed  the  invalid  softly  on  the 
brow ;  then  she  passed  on  to  the  little  parlor 
and  sat  down  at  the  piano.  It  was  almost 
time  for  him  to  come,  and  she  touched  the 


A   BROKEN  PROMISE  145 

keys  lightly  with  notes  that  rippled  and 
broke  like  happy  laughter.  The  music 
melted  into  a  tender  strain  that  was  full  of 
impatient  yearning.  She  played  softly  that 
she  might  not  miss  the  click  of  the  gate- 
latch  and  the  sound  of  the  familiar  step  as 
it  approached.  Somewhere  in  a  pepper-tree 
outside,  a  bird  kept  up  a  twittering  accom- 
paniment to  the  music  within. 

Late  that  night  Constance  lay  on  her 
couch  with  her  face  among  the  pillows.  The 
crown  of  gold-brown  hair  had  fallen  about 
her  shoulders  over  the  pale  rose  of  her  dress. 
The  lilies  she  had  worn  were  crushed  on  the 
floor,  and  filled  the  room  with  a  subtle  fra- 
grance. 

Gottfried  had  not  come. 

The  clock  struck  eleven  in  the  studio 
where  Heinrich  Dierssen  had  been  waiting 
for  more  than  an  hour  for  Gottfried  to  re- 
turn. He  rose  and,  after  a  few  impatient 
turns  about  the  room,  strode  through  the 
door,  snapping  the  spring-lock  behind  him. 
He  stepped  out  on  the  silent  street,  and 


146  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

began  pacing  up  and  down  in  front  of  the 
house. 

The  shadow  of  the  trees,  latticed  with  the 
white  brilliance  of  the  electric  light  at  the 
corner,  fell  across  the  sidewalk.  The  silence 
was  unbroken  save  by  the  occasional  noise 
of  a  passing  car.  Heinrich  walked  back 
and  forth,  the  wonder  and  pity  of  his 
thoughts  about  Constance  and  Gottfried 
softened  by  an  undertone  of  personal  joy ; 
for  the  face  of  Emma  Burroughs,  young  and 
pretty  with  a  happy  content,  seemed  to  smile 
at  him  in  the  darkness,  as  it  had  smiled 
when  he  asked  her  to  be  his  wife. 

For  nearly  an  hour  he  paced  the  street, 
up  one  side  and  down  the  other,  keeping  the 
darkened  window  of  the  studio  in  sight; 
then,  with  an  angry  mutter,  he  turned  and 
walked  rapidly  away. 


XI 

MRS.   CARRINGTON   IS   ALARMED 

PERKINS  went  running  up  the  steps  in 
response  to  the  violent  ringing  of  the  bell, 
and  entering  his  master's  study,  found  that 
gentleman  striding  about  the  room  in  a 
transport  of  rage. 

"  What  do  you  mean,  you  blockhead  ?  " 
he  stormed.  "  How  have  you  dared  to  med- 
dle with  my  room?  Where  have  you  put 
it,  you  scoundrel,  you  idiot  ?  " 

With  the  words,  he  seized  the  unfortunate 
man  in  his  athletic  grasp,  and  shook  him  and 
flung  him  off  in  a  fine  imitation  of  Salvini's 
treatment  of  lago  when  playing  Othello. 

The  astonished  servant,  who,  accustomed 
as  he  had  been  to  his  master's  ebullitions  of 
ungovernable  temper,  had  never  before  suf- 
fered personal  violence  at  his  hands,  picked 
himself  up  with  a  rueful  face. 


148  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  I  '11  make  him  pay  for  this,"  he  mut- 
tered to  himself.  "  It 's  worth  ten  dollars 
at  least.  I  '11  not  help  him  out  of  another 
scrape  without  an  extra  tip."  At  the  same 
time,  he  looked  at  his  master  with  an  ex- 
pression of  innocent  reproach. 

"  Indeed,  Mr.  Rex,"  he  said,  "  it  was  your 
mother  that  took  away  the  picture,  if  that 's 
what  you  mean.  I  made  bold  to  tell  her 
you'd  be  angry  when  she  had  it  moved  to 
the  attic ;  but  "— 

"To  the  attic?"  thundered  his  master. 
"  Bring  it  down  inside  of  five  minutes,  or 
I  '11  break  your  head."  And  the  terrified 
servant  hastily  withdrew  to  do  his  bidding. 

A  few  moments  later,  when  the  Madonna 
hung  again  in  its  accustomed  place,  and 
Perkins  had  been  peremptorily  dismissed 
from  the  room,  Rex  Carrington  sat  down 
by  a  table  opposite  the  picture  and  rested 
his  head  on  his  hand.  His  heart  beat  heav- 
ily, and  the  blood  coursed  madly  through  his 
veins. 

"I'm   a   fool,"   he   said    bitterly,   "and 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS   ALARMED      149 

totally  unworthy  of  her."  As  he  spoke 
he  turned  his  eyes  upon  the  picture,  and 
his  whole  face  softened.  It  was  a  hand- 
some enough  face,  and  not  lacking  in  pos- 
sibilities of  nobility  when  not  disfigured  by 
passion  or  brutalized  by  dissipation ;  for  as 
yet  his  reckless  habits  had  left  no  perma- 
nent marks  on  the  finely  moulded*  features. 
Just  now  it  wore  its  best  expression,  and 
the  eyes  of  the  picture  looked  straight  in 
his  with  a  serene  confidence  and  joy. 

"Why  can  I  not  find  her?"  he  groaned. 
"I  would  try  to  be  worthy  of  her  love." 
And  he  fell  to  building  castles  in  the  air 
that  his  chosen  companions,  if  they  could 
have  seen  them,  would  have  laughed  to 
scorn. 

A  sudden  thought  broke  into  his  medita- 
tions, and  he  rose  and  touched  the  bell. 
Perkins  responded,  still  looking  a  little  be- 
wildered and  afraid.  But  his  master's  pas- 
sion had  subsided,  and  he  spoke  calmly. 

"  Was  there  any  answer  to  my  note  to 
Miss  Alicia  ?  "  he  asked. 


150  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Yes,  sir,"  replied  Perkins ;  "  a  note  and 
a  package." 

"  Bring  them  to  me,"  said  Rex  shortly. 

When  Perkins  had  done  as  he  was  bidden 
and  again  retired,  Rex  sat  for  a  moment 
with  the  note  folded  on  the  table  before 
him  and  the  package  in  his  hand. 

"  I  hav/e  burned  my  bridges  now,"  he  mut- 
tered. "  There  is  no  way  of  return ;  I  must 
go  on  and  find  her  and  win  her. " 

Still  he  did  not  open  the  package  nor  read 
the  note.  Instead,  he  let  his  eyes  rest  on 
the  painting  and  his  thoughts  wander  away 
to  the  fair  unknown  original. 

"  It  is  la  grande  passion  at  last,"  he  said 
to  himself.  "Now  I  can  understand  my 
Petrarch  and  my  Dante." 

He  stirred  uneasily  as  the  thought  of  his 
unworthiness  recurred  to  him.  He  tried  to 
shake  off  the  feeling  with  a  laugh. 

"  I  am  growing  morbid,"  he  thought. 
"  After  all,  how  am  I  worse  than  other  men? 
It  is  only  that  she  is  a  saint,  and  all  must 
suffer  by  comparison  with  her.  And  that 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS   ALARMED      151 

presumptuous  painter — what  could  he  do 
for  her?  Give  her  a  life  of  poverty  and 
fruitless  hopes,  while  I  —  I  can  fulfill  her 
every  wish,  and  gratify  her  slightest  whim. 
But  he,  confound  him,  he  may  be  with  her 
whenever  the  fancy  seizes  him ;  and  she  may 
be  fond  of  him." 

A  bitter  pang  of  jealousy  pierced  his 
heart,  such  as  he  had  never  felt  before  ;  and 
he  hated  his  fortunate  rival  with  all  the  force 
of  his  impetuous  nature. 

"  Give  me  a  fair  fight  in  an  open  field," 
he  groaned,  "  and  I  would  not  complain.  If 
she  might  choose  between  us,"  and  he  smiled 
confidently  at  the  thought,  "  I  would  be  sat- 
isfied. But  for  him  to  keep  her  hidden,  for 
him  to  balk  me  like  this  —  zounds  !  I  could 
give  him  a  sword-thrust  with  pleasure  if  he 
did  not  elude  me  so  skillfully.  He  has  doubt- 
less heard  of  my  reputation  as  a  fencer  since 
he  sent  the  challenge ;  and  he  is  a  brave 
man  —  on  paper,"  he  concluded  his  medita- 
tions contemptuously. 

He  was  startled  from  his  reflections  by  the 


152  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

sound  of  a  voice  in  the  hall  below.  It  was 
that  of  his  neighbor,  the  baron.  He  slipped 
the  package  and  the  letter  hastily  in  his 
pocket,  and  turned  away  from  the  picture. 

A  moment  later,  the  privileged  guest  had 
bounded  up  the  stairway,  three  steps  at  a 
time,  and  stood  in  the  door  of  the  study. 

"  Come  in,"  said  Rex,  rising  and  bringing 
forward  a  chair.  The  baron  entered  and 
sat  down  opposite  the  picture.  No  sooner 
had  he  seen  it  than  his  handsome  blonde 
face  flushed  with  pleasure. 

"  Is  it  an  ideal  face,"  he  asked,  "  or  is 
there  a  woman  living  with  a  face  like  that?" 

Rex  colored  slightly  with  annoyance.  His 
futile  dreams  had  given  him  a  sense  of  owner- 
ship, that  resented  the  admiration  of  other 
men. 

"  My  man  was  told  by  the  dealer  that  it  is 
the  copy  of  a  living  face,"  he  returned  care- 
lessly ;  "  but  I  have  not  learned  the  name  of 
the  model." 

"  The  artist,  I  see,"  said  the  baron,  who 
had  risen  and  was  standing  before  the  pic- 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS  ALARMED      153 

ture,  "  is  a  countryman  of  mine.  Who  is 
he  ?  what  has  he  done  ?  It  strikes  me  that 
this  is  extraordinary." 

"  He's  a  cad  of  a  fellow,"  said  Rex  shortly. 
"  He  can't  do  anything  but  paint." 

They  had  been  talking  in  German,  but  the 
speech  of  Rex  was  hesitating  and  far  from 
idiomatic,  although  he  had  been  a  student 
of  German  for  several  years,  and  had  recently 
been  improving  his  accent  by  conversation 
with  the  baron  and  the  baroness. 

It  was  later  in  the  day  that  Rex  went  out 
with  two  young  men  of  the  fashionable  club 
to  which  he  belonged  ;  and  the  faithful  Per- 
kins saw  nothing  more  of  him  till  he  went  to 
the  club-rooms  at  twelve  o'clock  that  night. 
There  he  found  him,  his  head  on  his  folded 
arms  that  rested  on  the  table,  in  the  midst 
of  a  debris  of  broken  glasses  and  decanters. 
A  companion,  in  a  similar  state  of  somno- 
lence, lay  on  the  floor  where  he  had  fallen. 
The  janitor  stood  in  the  doorway,  surveying 
the  scene  with  a  resignation  born  of  famil- 
iarity. 


154  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Well,  Carpenter,"  said  Perkins  quietly, 
"  I  guess  you  '11  have  to  help  me  carry  Mr. 
Rex  out." 

"Did  you  bring  the  carriage?"  queried 
the  janitor. 

Perkins  nodded. 

"  Then  I  guess  you  '11  have  to  drop  the 
other  gent  on  the  way  home,"  said  Carpenter, 
as  he  turned  up  the  heavy  face  to  see  who  it 
was.  "  It  won't  be  out  of  your  way,"  he 
added,  naming  the  address. 

As  they  carried  Rex  out  of  the  room,  a 
letter  fell  from  his  pocket ;  and  on  return- 
ing for  his  companion,  Perkins  picked  it  up 
and  put  it  in  his  own  pocket. 

It  was  between  two  and  three  o'clock  that 
morning  that  the  valet,  who  had  put  his 
master  to  bed,  heard  him  stirring  in  his 
room.  He  arose  and,  hastily  throwing  on  his 
clothes,  entered  the  hall  just  in  time  to  see 
his  master  creep  stealthily  out  of  the  house. 
The  valet  stole  after  him,  careful  to  make  no 
noise.  But  his  caution  seemed  unnecessary ; 
for  Rex  looked  neither  to  the  right  nor  the 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS   ALARMED      155 

left,  but  pursued  his  way  steadily  until  he 
had  reached  the  street.  Then,  for  a  mo- 
ment, he  paused ;  suddenly  starting  off  at 
such  speed  that  Perkins  found  it  difficult  to 
follow  him.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  keep- 
ing him  in  sight,  though  at  some  distance. 
He  passed  from  the  fashionable  quarter  of 
the  city  and  through  the  principal  business 
blocks  toward  the  river,  pausing  at  last,  af- 
ter his  long  walk,  before  a  dingy  lodging- 
house,  with  a  colored  lamp  in  front  of  the 
door.  Here,  to  Perkins's  amazement,  he 
turned  in  and  was  lost  to  sight. 

But  only  for  a  moment,  for  Perkins  had 
followed  in  hot  pursuit,  entering  a  dim  hall- 
way, and  stumbling  up  a  flight  of  uncarpeted 
stairs  to  a  gloomy  corridor  above.  He  was 
just  in  time  to  see  the  familiar  form  of  his 
master  enter  a  room  at  the  end  of  the  hall 
and  to  hear  the  key  turned  in  the  lock  as  the 
door  closed  after  him. 

Perkins  went  to  the  door  and  rapped,  but 
there  was  no  response. 

"  Mr.  Kex,"  he  cried,  "  Mr.  Rex !  " 


156  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

But  the  room  was  as  quiet  as  though 
unoccupied,  and  remained  in  darkness. 
Alarmed  at  his  master's  strange  behavior, 
but  unwilling  to  rouse  his  anger,  Perkins 
ceased  his  importunities,  determined  to  try 
a  new  way  of  reaching  him.  Returning  to 
the  head  of  the  stairway,  he  found  a  bell 
and  pulled  the  cord. 

After  several  minutes  a  man  in  his  shirt 
sleeves  and  with  unshaven  face  made  his  ap- 
pearance. 

"  Do  you  want  a  room  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  No,"  said  Perkins ;  "  I  want  to  see  Mr. 
Rex  Carrington." 

"  There  's  no  such  person  here,"  was  the 
reply. 

"  I  saw  him  come  in  not  five  minutes  ago," 
Perkins  persisted. 

"  You  're  mistaken,"  said  the  man,  as  he 
turned  to  go  away. 

"  Look  here,"  said  Perkins,  with  sudden 
decision  ;  "  I  saw  him  come  in,  and  I  'm  go- 
ing to  see  him,  or  I  '11  know  the  reason 
why." 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS   ALARMED      157 

"  Don't  try  a  bluff  on  me,"  said  the  man, 
drawing  a  pistol  from  his  pocket  and  point- 
ing it  at  Perkins.  "Now  go,"  he  added 
with  an  oath,  "  or  I  '11  blow  off  the  top  of 
your  head." 

Perkins  retreated  precipitately  down  the 
stairway,  and  did  not  stop  to  consider  his 
course  until  he  had  put  several  blocks  be- 
tween himself  and  his  threatened  assailant. 

Then  he  halted  and  considered  what  to  do. 
He  might  call  on  the  police  for  assistance ; 
but  he  knew  his  master  would  be  furious  at 
the  publicity.  He  reasoned  that  Rex  must 
have  had  some  object  in  going  to  the  house ; 
that  he  had  not  been  there  long  enough  be- 
fore his  own  arrival  for  any  harm  to  have 
befallen  him  ;  and  that  he  would  probably 
return  home  when  he  had  finished  his  mys- 
terious business.  Accordingly  Perkins,  with 
due  regard  to  his  personal  safety  and  the 
security  of  his  position,  decided  to  go  home 
quietly  and  await  the  course  of  events. 

It  was  some  weeks  later  that  Mrs.  Car- 
rington  summoned  the  valet  to  her.  She  was 


158  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

in  her  private  sitting-room,  in  a  n 
robe.  Her  face  was  very  pale  and  there 
were  dark  rings  underneath  her  eyes.  Her 
jeweled  fingers  were  interlaced  nervously  in 
her  lap. 

"  Where  is  your  master?"  she  demanded, 
looking  at  the  valet  imperiously. 

"  If  you  would  only  spare  yourself,  ma- 
dame,"  the  man  began  uncertainly. 

"  We  have  had  enough  of  this,  Perkins," 
said  the  lady,  rising.  "  Tell  me  instantly ; 
where  is  my  son  ?  " 

"  He  is  in  bed,  madame,"  replied  the  ser- 
vant. 

"  Then  I  am  going  to  him."  And  Mrs. 
Carrington  moved  toward  the  door. 

Instinctively  Perkins  stepped  forward  to 
intercept  her. 

"  It  will  be  very  painful  to  you,"  he  said 
hurriedly  ;  "  and  Mr.  Rex  will  be  very  an- 
gry." 

"  Let  me  pass,"  she  said  in  a  stern  voice  ; 
"  let  me  pass,  or  I  will  have  you  put  out  of 
the  house." 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS  ALARMED      159 

The  man  fell  back  abashed,  and  she 
passed  into  the  hallway.  He  followed  her, 
wringing  his  hands. 

"  Whatever  will  become  of  me  now  ?  "  he 
mumbled  to  himself.  "  She  '11  be  after  me 
because  I  deceived  her  ;  and  Mr.  Rex  '11  be 
like  the  devil  because  I  let  her  know." 

He  followed  her,  shaking  so  that  it  was 
with  difficulty  he  kept  his  teeth  from  chat- 
tering. 

Mrs.  Carrington  did  not  pause  till  she 
had  reached  her  son's  chamber  and  opened 
the  door.  Then  she  stopped  on  the  thresh- 
old with  an  exclamation  of  dismay.  She 
had  nerved  herself  for  the  horrors  of  deli- 
rium tremens  ;  for  groans  and  shouts  and 
curses,  and  a  face  transformed  by  fiendish 
passion  or  torturing  agony.  But  instead  of 
this,  there  was  utter  silence.  The  room  was 
empty,  and  the  bed  had  evidently  been  unoc- 
cupied the  night  before.  She  looked  around 
at  the  trembling,  shrinking  figure  of  the 
valet,  and  turned  away  in  contemptuous 
scorn.  She  crossed  the  room  and  parted 


160  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

the  portieres  that  curtained  the  dressing- 
room.  It,  too,  was  empty. 

She  retraced  her  steps,  and,  crossing  the 
hall,  opened  the  door  of  his  study.  She 
started  back  as  her  eyes  fell  on  the  pic- 
ture of  the  Madonna,  and  a  momentary 
sense  of  anger  relieved  the  tension  of  an 
awful  fear. 

"  I  thought  I  had  ordered  that  removed," 
she  said,  looking  back  at  the  valet. 

"  It  was  done,  madame,"  was  the  reply  ; 
"  but  Mr.  Rex  had  it  brought  back  again." 

"  He  is  bewitched  with  the  face,"  she  mur- 
mured to  herself. 

Then  she  turned  to  the  servant  with  the 
question  he  dreaded. 

"  What  have  you  done  with  your  mas- 
ter ?  "  she  asked  steadily. 

"I  —  I  have  done  nothing,"  he  stam- 
mered. "  He  went  away  of  his  own  wilL  I 
will  swear  it  on  the  Bible." 

"  Come  back  to  my  room,"  she  said 
sternly  ;  "  I  will  listen  to  your  explanation 
there." 


MRS.    CARRINGTON  IS  ALARMED      161 

After  an  interview  of  some  length,  the 
valet  retired ;  and  fifteen  minutes  later  he 
sat  with  Mrs.  Carrington  in  her  carriage, 
which  was  rolling  rapidly  toward  the  lower 
part  of  the  city. 


XII 

THE   ARREST 

SOME  time  before,  as  Constance  passed 
down  the  street  on  her  daily  rounds  one 
morning,  she  looked  up  at  Gottfried's  win- 
dow, as  she  never  failed  to  do  when  going 
by.  To  her  surprise,  the  blind  was  raised, 
and  Gottfried  sat  at  his  easel,  at  work  on 
her  portrait.  He  looked  out  and  smiled, 
bowing  as  usual.  Involuntarily  she  stopped 
and  clasped  her  hands  tightly  before  her. 
He  sprang  from  his  seat,  took  down  his  hat 
from  the  rack  in  the  hall,  and  the  next  mo- 
ment stood  beside  her. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  mein  Liebchen  ?  " 
he  said.  "  Did  you  want  me  ?  " 

For  reply,  she  slipped  her  hand  in  his  and 
drew  him  along  beside  her. 

"Gottfried,  Gottfried!"  she  half  whis- 
pered, "  I  thought  I  had  lost  you." 


THE   ARREST  163 

"  No,  mein  Liebchen"  he  said  tenderly, 
noticing  how  pale  she  looked  and  how  the 
heart-shape  of  her  face  was  accentuated.  "  I 
have  been  on  a  wild-goose  chase  to  Catalina 
Island,  but  you  see  I  have  returned.  I 
have  been  watching  for  you  this  morning ; 
I  knew,  dear,  you  would  come  and  look  in 
at  my  window." 

His  voice  had  dropped  to  a  passionate 
undertone,  and  he  pressed  the  little  hand 
that  lay  trembling  in  his. 

"  And  you  will  not  go  away  again,  Gott- 
fried ?  "  she  pleaded,  looking  at  him  with 
tender  eyes. 

"  Achf  mein  Liebchen"  he  groaned  ;  "if 
I  could  only  promise  you." 

He  despised  himself  for  his  weakness ; 
but  already,  at  sight  of  her  face,  his  resolu- 
tion to  tell  her  his  trouble  and  to  release 
her  grew  faint  in  his  heart.  He  felt  that  he 
could  never  give  her  up.  The  longing  to  be 
alone  with  her,  to  put  his  arms  about  her 
and  press  kisses  on  her  lips,  mastered  him. 

"Come,   Constance,"    he    said,   as    they 


164  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

heard  the  rush  of  the  car  behind  them ; 
"  let  us  go  to  Westlake  Park  and  be  alone 
for  a  little  while  —  together." 

She  had  only  a  second  for  thought,  when 
the  car  had  reached  them.  She  remembered 
her  waiting  pupils,  but  she  had  not  the 
strength  to  resist  the  pleading  in  his  eyes. 
It  was  so  long  since  she  had  seen  him.  He 
stopped  the  car  and  helped  her  on,  sitting 
down  on  the  front  seat  beside  her. 

The  ride  was  long,  and  as  they  swept  up 
and  down  the  hills,  the  sense  of  the  motion 
and  the  wind  in  her  face  seemed  trans- 
formed to  a  sense  of  the  course  of  fate. 
Gottfried's  hand  sought  hers,  holdmg  it 
tightly  under  the  folds  of  her  cape.  Her 
ringers  fastened  around  his  and  clung  to 
them. 

When  they  reached  the  park,  they  found 
a  shaded  bench  by  the  lake,  where  they  sat 
down.  They  were  quite  alone,  and  for  a 
moment  their  lips  met.  Then  Constance 
looked  about  her  apprehensively  and  Gott- 
fried laughed.  There  was  no  one  in  sight. 


THE  ARREST  165 

By  tacit  consent,  they  avoided  the  subject 
of  his  absence,  and  occupied  themselves 
with  those  important  trifles  of  mutual  lone- 
liness and  extravagant  dreams  that  could  be 
of  interest  to  no  one  but  themselves. 

Suddenly,  as  Gottfried  drew  his  handker- 
chief from  his  pocket,  he  shook  from '  its 
folds  a  little  packet  that  fell  at  Constance's 
feet.  The  girl  picked  it  up  with  a  laugh. 

"  I  found  it ;  it  is  mine,"  she  said. 

Gottfried  watched  her  as  she  untied  the 
string  and  opened  the  lid  of  a  tiny  box. 
She  gave  a  little  cry  of  wonder  and  delight, 
for  set  in  a  band  of  gold  that  lay  between 
the  velvet  cushions  shone  a  splendid  dia- 
mond. She  looked  at  Gottfried  inquir- 
ingly. 

For  a  moment  he  paused  and  flushed 
painfully  ;  then  he  took  her  hand  and  drew 
from  it  the  little  mended  glove. 

"  Once,  mein  Liebchen"  he  said  softly, 
"you  seemed  a  little  hurt  because  I  gave 
you  no  ring.  It  was  a  foolish  prejudice  on 
my  part,  and  I  could  not  bear  to  seem  to 
slight  you  ;  so  I  have  brought  you  this." 


166  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

He  drew  the  ring  from  the  box  and 
slipped  it  on  her  finger.  She  lifted  her  face 
to  his,  and  he  bent  down  and  kissed  her. 

"But  I  am  afraid  it  cost  a  very  great 
deal,  Gottfried,"  she  said.  "  I  am  afraid  I 
ought  not  to  wear  it." 

"  Nothing  is  too  good  for  my  little  love," 
he  returned,  holding  up  her  hand  and  look- 
ing at  the  gem  as  it  flashed  in  the  light. 

"  Oh  !  "  she  exclaimed  suddenly,  "  I  must 
see  what  you  have  put  in  it." 

She  drew  it  off,  and  holding  it  up,  looked 
on  the  inner  side  of  the  gold  band.  Gott- 
fried bent  over  her  apprehensively ;  and  as 
he  looked,  he  gave  a  sigh  of  relief.  There 
was  no  inscription  whatever. 

A  shade  of  disappointment  crossed  the 
girl's  fair  face.  Gottfried  saw  it,  and 
thought  only  how  he  might  make  reparation. 

"  Give  it  to  me,"  he  said,  "  and  I  will 
take  it  to  a  jeweler  and  have  it  engraved." 

She  held  it  out  to  him,  looking  up  in  his 
face. 

"  What  will  it  be  ?"  she  asked. 


THE   ARREST  167 

"What  should  it  be,"  he  replied,  "but 
'  mein  Liebchen  ? '  " 

He  put  the  ring  in  his  pocket,  and  the 
talk  drifted  to  other  things. 

"  You  don't  know  how  Emma  Burroughs 
has  changed,"  said  Constance.  "  She  is  as 
happy,  almost  as  happy  as  I  am.  But  they 
are  waiting,  as  we  are,"  she  added ;  "  they 
cannot  marry  till  Heinrich  gets  some  prac- 
tice." 

"  He  will  make  his  way  yet,"  said  Gott- 
fried ;  "  he  has  great  ability.  Sometime  he 
will  seize  an  opportunity  and  bring  himself 
into  public  notice." 

The  speaker  did  not  dream  that  he  him- 
self was  soon  to  furnish  that  opportunity  to 
his  friend. 

"  You  should  hear  Emma  try  to  talk 
German,"  laughed  Constance.  "  It  is  too 
funny.  But  it  is  almost  pathetic  to  hear 
her  try  to  make  Mrs.  Dierssen  understand 
her.  Even  Heinrich  cannot  interpret  it." 

The  morning  passed  quickly,  and  Con- 
stance rose  at  last  with  tardy  contrition. 


168  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Mamma  will  be  expecting  me,"  she  said  ; 
"  and  I  have  missed  my  lessons.  I  feel  like 
a  naughty  child  that  has  been  playing  tru- 
ant." 

"  I  will  come  up  this  evening  to  make 
peace  for  you,"  said  Gottfried.  "  I  have 
been  expecting  a  new  pupil  myself,  but  he 
may  not  come  till  afternoon." 

As  they  parted  half  an  hour  later,  Gott- 
fried stopped  off  in  town  for  his  lunch,  and 
Constance,  remaining  on  the  car,  looked 
after  his  retreating  figure  with  the  old 
dread  that  she  might  not  see  it  again  for 
many  days.  But  this  time  he  did  not  disap- 
point her.  He  had  fallen  into  his  usual 
habits  as  though  there  had  been  no  break  in 
them  ;  and  every  morning  he  greeted  her  at 
the  studio  window,  and  every  evening  he 
spent  with  her  in  reading  and  singing,  or 
strolling  under  the  pepper-trees  that  bor- 
dered the  quiet  street. 

It  was  several  days  after  his  return  that 
he  brought  her  the  ring,  engraved  with  the 
familiar  words,  "  Mein  Liebchen."  The 


THE   ARREST  169 

same  evening,  Emma  Burroughs  came  in, 
and  shortly  after,  Heinrich  Dierssen.  Gott- 
fried drew  out  the  card-table,  and  they  began 
to  play  whist. 

It  chanced  that  Constance  dealt  first,  and 
Emma  noticed  the  flashing  of  the  stone  on 
her  finger. 

"  What  a  beautiful  ring !  "  she  exclaimed. 

Constance  blushed. 

"  Gottfried  gave  it  to  me,"  she  said. 

Heinrich  looked  at  him  in  surprise. 

"  You  thought  better  of  your  superstitious 
prejudice,  did  you  ?  "  he  laughed. 

Gottfried  hesitated  a  moment  before  he 
spoke. 

"Well,  you  see,"  he  said  awkwardly, 
"  you  gave  Emma  a  ring,  and  I  thought  Con- 
stance would  want  one,  too." 

"But  mine  is  only  a  gold  band,"  said 
Heinrich.  "  A  doctor  without  patients  can- 
not compete  with  an  artist  with  rich  pa- 
trons." 

Heinrich  was  a  connoisseur  in  stones,  and 
he  was  amazed  at  Gottfried's  expenditure ; 


170  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

but  the  latter  offered  no  explanation  or  ex- 
cuse. 

"I  told  him  he  was  extravagant,"  laughed 
Constance. 

Heinrich  led  and  the  play  began. 

When  he  was  dealing,  the  girls  exchanged 
rings,  to  look  at  the  inscriptions. 

"  What  is  it  ?  "  said  Emma,  handing  the 
ring  she  held  to  Heinrich. 

"  '  Mein  Liebchen,'  "  he  said,  reading  the 
German  script.  "  Emma  has  not  been  able 
to  acquire  more  German  than  the  words  on 
her  ring,  '/cA  liebe  dick]  "  he  added,  laugh- 
ing. 

"  It  means  the  same,  does  n't  it  ?  "  asked 
Emma. 

"It  is  the  difference  between  'my  little 
love '  and  '  I  love  you,'  if  there  is  a  differ- 
ence," returned  Heinrich. 

Mrs.  Wilbur,  lying  on  her  couch  in  the 
bay-window,  watched  the  players  with  a 
contented  smile.  Occasionally,  she  joined 
in  the  conversation ;  but  for  the  most  part, 
she  lay  silent,  watching  the  bright  young 


THE   ARREST  171 

faces  with  mingled  visions  of  their  future 
and  her  own  past. 

That  night,  they  had  the  rarebit,  made  by 
Gottfried's  skillful  hands,  and  the  Russian 
tea  that  Constance  was  so  fond  of  serving. 
As  her  little  hands  fluttered  over  the  tea- 
cups, the  ring  flashed  in  the  light ;  and  in 
spite  of  his  happy  mood,  the  couplet  about 
the  Ringlein  persistently  repeated  itself  in 
her  lover's  mind.  But  even  he  did  not 
dream  of  the  part  the  ring  was  to  play  in 
their  destiny. 

The  merry  party  separated  late  that  night, 
Gottfried  and  Heinrich  walking  off  arm-in- 
arm, while  the  girls  stood  together  in  the 
doorway.  As  the  men  disappeared  in  the 
darkness,  Constance  and  Emma  turned  with 
a  common  impulse  and  kissed  each  other. 

"  Oh,  I  am  so  happy,"  said  Constance. 

With  a  flash  of  recurrent  feeling,  Emma 
seemed  to  herself  to  sit  once  more  over  her 
sewing,  listening  to  the  voices  of  Constance 
and  her  lover  at  the  door.  The  next  in- 
stant the  joy  of  the  present  had  returned  in 
warm  pulsations  to  her  heart. 


172  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  And  I,"  she  said  in  response  to  her 
companion's  words,  "  I  did  not  know  it 
would  be  possible  for  me  ever  to  be  happy 
again.  Do  you  think  it  is  wrong,  Con- 
stance," she  went  on,  sinking  her  voice  al- 
most to  a  whisper,  "  do  you  think  it  is  wrong 
for  me  to  be  happier  even  than  I  was  with 
Robert  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  the  younger  girl,  putting  her 
arm  about  her  companion's  waist,  "Hein- 
rich  is  the  right  one  ;  and  if  Robert  loved 
you,  he  would  be  glad  for  you  to  be  happy." 

"  Where  did  you  get  the  ring  ?  "  Hein- 
rich  was  saying  to  Gottfried.  "  It  is  one  of 
the  most  superb  stones  I  have  ever  seen." 

"  I  did  not  get  it  here,"  was  the  evasive 
reply.  "  I  have  had  it  —  some  time." 

"  But  you  had  it  engraved  here  ?"  per- 
sisted Heinrich. 

"  Yes,"  said  Gottfried  ;  "  at  Mason's,  the 
other  day." 

For  some  time  the  days  passed  much  as 
before  Gottfried  went  away.  The  lovers 
resumed  their  readings  and  moonlight 


THE  ARREST  173 

walks,  and  discussed  plans  for  the  future  as 
of  old.  Gottfried  no  longer  tried  to  keep 
the  resolution  he  had  made  to  tell  Constance 
his  trouble.  It  would  be  better,  he  said  to 
himself,  to  wait  till  he  had  seen  Miss  Ferris 
and  had  learned  what  he  could  from  her. 
For  the  same  reason  he  did  not  fulfill  his 
promise  to  Heinrich,  who  did  not  like  to 
press  him  for  his  confidence. 

One  day,  Constance  went  to  give  a  lesson 
to  Lillian  Ferris ;  the  first  after  the  return 
of  the  family  from  Coronado. 

Just  before  she  left,  Miss  Ferris  entered 
the  room,  with  the  pretext  of  a  careless 
question  to  her  sister;  but  Constance  felt 
sure  she  had  come  in  with  some  design  in 
regard  to  herself.  She  was  not  surprised 
when  the  young  lady's  eyes  rested  on  the 
diamond  that  sparkled  on  her  finger;  but 
she  was  not  prepared  for  the  sudden  pallor 
of  her  face. 

"  I  see,"  Miss  Ferris  said  at  last,  almost 
huskily,  "  that  your  —  your  lover  has  at 
last  given  you  the  ring." 


174  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Constance  bowed  without  speaking. 

"May  I  ask,"  continued  the  girl,  "the 
name  of  the  liberal  donor  ?  " 

Something  in  her  tone  stung  Constance  to 
quick  resentment. 

"Certainly,"  she  said;  "it  is  Gottfried 
Jager." 

"  The  painter  ?  "  queried  Miss  Ferris. 

Again  Constance  bowed. 

"  And  he  lives  "  —  suggested  Miss  Ferris. 

Constance's  eyes  flashed,  but  she  gave  her 
the  street  and  number. 

"  And  now,"  she  said,  turning  upon  her 
interlocutor,  "perhaps  you  will  be  kind 
enough  to  tell  me  what  you  know  of  him, 
and  who  the  lady  is  to  whom  you  said  he 
was  engaged  ?  " 

"  I  was  mistaken,"  returned  Miss  Ferris 
coolly.  "  It  was  only  a  fancied  resemblance 
of  the  features.  I  was  aware  at  the  time 
that  the  expression  of  the  face  was  not  the 
same." 

She  turned  and  walked  out  of  the  room  ; 
and  before  Constance  had  reached  the  side- 
walk, she  had  ordered  her  carriage. 


THE   ARREST  175 

That  evening  Constance  waited  for  Gott- 
fried in  vain.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had 
failed  her  since  the  morning  he  had  gone 
with  her  to  Westlake  Park.  Even  Hein- 
rich  did  not  come  to  see  Emma ;  but  he  had 
sent  word  that  he  had  been  called  out  to  his 
first  case. 

Constance  wandered  about  the  house  in 
growing  uneasiness.  Now,  she  sat  by  her 
mother's  couch  and  talked  of  trifles,  avoid- 
ing, as  usual,  all  reference  to  Gottfried's 
failure  to  appear ;  now  she  entered  the  room 
where  the  Burroughs  sisters  sat  stitching, 
Emma's  pretty  face  flushed  with  truant 
thoughts,  Agnes  looking  at  her  from  time 
to  time  with  brave  efforts  to  be  glad  of  her 
happiness  and  forget  the  monotony  of  her 
own  life.  Again  Constance  wandered  out 
in  the  garden,  lifting  her  head  from  the 
flowers  to  look  surreptitiously  down  the 
street,  or  sat  at  the  piano  and  played 
snatches  of  music,  stopping  abruptly  to  go 
and  stand  at  the  window  with  a  faint  hope 
that  even  yet  she  might  see  the  familiar 


176  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

form  emerge  from  the  shadows  of  the 
street. 

But  the  evening  was  over  at  kst;  and 
she  lay  in  her  room,  shuddering  with  vague 
fears  and  half-defined  thoughts  of  evil,  that 
were  lost  at  last  in  fitful  slumber,  broken  by 
torturing  visions. 

She  awoke  in  the  morning  unrefreshed. 
There  was  no  hope  in  her  heart  that  she 
would  hear  from  her  lover  that  day.  She 
thought  that  days  and  perhaps  weeks  must 
pass  before  she  would  see  him  again ;  and 
then  it  would  be  as  though  he  had  been 
resurrected  from  the  dead,  so  absolute 
would  be  his  silence  concerning  the  interval 
of  his  absence.  Already  the  perfect  curves 
of  her  cheeks  had  disappeared,  and  hollows 
had  defined  themselves  under  her  eyes. 

As  she  went  down-stairs,  she  was  startled 
by  a  violent  pull  at  the  door-bell.  She  an- 
swered the  summons,  and  started  with  appre- 
hension at  sight  of  a  messenger  boy.  With 
trembling  fingers  she  tore  open  the  envelope 
he  handed  her,  and  drew  out  the  note  that 


THE  ARREST  177 

was  inside.  It  was  dated  at  the  jail,  and  the 
words  of  the  message  danced  before  her 
eyes  in  a  strange  mist.  But  their  terrible 
meaning  had  not  failed  to  penetrate  brain 
and  heart  with  a  sickening  sense  of  horror. 

Gottfried  had  been  arrested  for  the  mur- 
der of  Rex  Carrinjrton. 


XIII 

THE   RING 

AN  hour  later,  Constance  went  to  the  jail, 
accompanied  by  Heinrich  Dierssen. 

As  they  passed  along  the  streets,  the 
newsboys  were  crying  the  morning  papers. 

"  Full  account  of  the  murder  ;  tragedy  in 
high  life  ;  sensational  details  ;  all  about  the 
duel." 

Constance  shuddered  and  clung  to  Hein- 
rich's  arm. 

The  young  man  had  seen  the  paper  that 
morning,  and  had  hastened  to  see  Constance, 
but  not  before  word  had  reached  her  from 
Gottfried.  He  recalled  now  the  sensational 
head-lines  that  had  stared  at  him  as  he 
opened  the  paper  at  the  breakfast  table  that 
morning :  "  Lured  to  his  Death ;  A  Figue- 
roa  Street  Millionaire  Slain  in  a  Lodging- 
house.  "Where  is  the  body  of  Rex  Carring- 


THE   RING  179 

ton  ?  —  Gottfried  Jager,  the  painter,  ar- 
rested for  the  crime." 

He  roused  himself  to  repeat  to  Constance 
words  of  reassurance  and  hope.  The  girl, 
while  confident  of  her  lover's  innocence,  was 
bewildered  and  oppressed  with  fear  and 
terror. 

The  way  seemed  interminably  long  to  her, 
but  they  reached  their  destination  at  last. 
For  a  moment  she  shrank  back;  then  she 
controlled  her  aversion  to  the  place,  and 
followed  their  guide  calmly,  still  clinging, 
however,  to  Heinrich's  arm. 

She  entered  the  cell  alone,  and  Gottfried 
started  to  his  feet  with  an  inarticulate  cry. 
His  face  was  haggard  and  worn,  his  eyes 
sunken  and  feverishly  bright.  He  looked 
at  her  as  though  uncertain  of  her  feelings, 
—  a  mingled  look  of  doubt,  entreaty,  and 
fear.  She  flung  herself  in  his  arms,  and 
pressed  her  face  against  his  cheek. 

"Gottfried,  dear  Gottfried,"  she  whis- 
pered. 

" Mein    Liebchen,   mein    Liebchen"   he 


180  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

moaned  ;  "  God  forgive  me  for  the  sorrow  I 
have  caused  you." 

"  But  it  is  not  your  fault,  and  it  will  be 
all  right  after  a  while,"  she  returned  bravely ; 
"  after  a  while,  when  you  are  free  again." 

"  And  you  believe  that  I  am  innocent  ?  " 
he  asked. 

"  I  know  it,"  she  said  simply. 

His  only  answer  was  a  groan. 

She  looked  at  his  face,  and  it  frightened 
her,  it  was  set  in  such  lines  of  fear  and 
horror. 

"  What  is  it,  Gottfried  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  would  give  my  right  hand,"  he  said 
with  sudden  vehemence,  "if  I  could  know 
—  if  I  could  be  sure  that  I  am  innocent." 

She  shrank  back  and  looked  at  him  with 
beseeching  eyes. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  she  cried.  "  You 
know  you  are  innocent;  tell  me  so  with 
your  own  lips." 

He  looked  at  her  sadly,  his  excitement 
subsiding  as  hers  arose. 

"  Before  God,"  he  said  solemnly,  "  I  do 


THE   RING  181 

not  know  whether  I  have  done  this  thing  or 
not.  I  should  have  told  you  the  curse  of 
my  life  long  ago,"  he  added  in  bitter  self- 
reproach  ;  "  more  than  once  I  have  tried  to 
tell  you,  but  I  had  not  the  strength  to  give 
you  up." 

He  covered  his  face  with  his  hands  and 
groaned. 

At  his  inexplicable  words,  Constance  grew 
pale  with  a  sudden  fear.  Had  his  trouble 
made  him  mad  ?  But  one  thing  she  knew : 
mad  or  sane,  the  real  Gottfried  that  she 
loved  was  free  from  crime.  She  bent  toward 
him  and  drew  away  his  hands. 

"  Tell  me  now,  Gottfried,"  she  said  gently ; 
"  you  need  not  be  afraid.  Whatever  it  is,  I 
love  you." 

" Bless  you,  mein  Liebchen"  he  said 
brokenly,  as  he  took  her  hand. 

Suddenly  he  started,  and  a  ghastly  pallor 
overspread  his  face. 

"  Where  is  the  ring  ?  "  he  cried. 

She  bowed  her  head  in  silence,  and  tears 
fell  on  their  clasped  hands. 


182  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  I  know,"  he  said  quietly,  "  they  have 
taken  it  for  evidence  against  me." 

She  was  still  silent. 

"Poor  little  girl,"  he  said;  "when  did 
they  do  it  ?  Before  you  received  word  from 
me,  or  after?" 

"  After,"  she  replied ;  "  just  before  I 
started  out  to  come  here." 

He  lifted  her  hand  and  laid  it  against  his 
cheek. 

"Fool  that  I  was,"  he  said,  "to  take  the 
hazard  of  such  a  thing.  But  I  have  always 
kept  the  money  I  found  in  my  possession, 
not  knowing  how  to  return  it,  and  thinking 
that  in  some  way  it  must  belong  to  me. 
Then,  I  did  not  know  how  to  explain  to  you 
my  possession  of  the  ring  ;  I  was  afraid  — 
forgive  me,  dear  —  that  after  what  Miss 
Ferris  told  you,  you  would  think  me  untrue 
to  you  if  I  did  not  give  the  ring  to  you. 
And  I  yielded  to  the  momentary  impulse  to 
save  myself  in  your  eyes.  Fool,  fool !  " 

"  I  don't  understand,  Gottfried,"  said 
Constance  in  bewilderment. 


THE  RING  183 

"  No,  of  course  you  don't !  "  he  exclaimed 
in  self-reproach.  "  How  can  I  make  you 
believe  what  I  say  ?  I  never  saw  the  ring 
until  you  opened  the  packet  yourself.  I  did 
not  know  there  was  such  a  packet  in  my 
pocket  till  it  fell  at  your  feet." 

Constance  looked  at  him  in  wordless 
amazement. 

"  And  that  is  not  all,"  he  continued.  "  I 
do  not  know  where  I  am  or  what  I  am  doing 
during  those  long  absences  that  have  grieved 
you  so.  I  must  be  in  a  state  of  dementia, 
and  what  I  may  have  done  during  the  last 
attack  I  do  not  know.  They  tell  me  that  in 
the  morning  I  came  out  of  the  room  in  the 
lodging-house  that  Rex  Carrington  was  last 
seen  to  enter  the  night  beforehand ;  and  that 
I  subsequently  gave  to  you  a  valuable  ring 
that  belonged  to  him.  It  is  also  known  that 
I  had  feelings  of  enmity  toward  him,  and  as 
he  has  not  been  seen  since  that  night,  the 
circumstantial  evidence  is  very  strong  against 
me." 

Constance  had  paled  to  a  marble  white- 


184  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

ness,  and  for  a  moment,  indeed,  she  seemed 
turned  to  stone.  Then  the  color  came  back 
to  her  cheeks,  and  a  beautiful  smile  illu- 
mined her  face. 

"  Then  you  have  been  true  to  me  indeed," 
she  said ;  "  it  was  through  no  possible  negli- 
gence of  your  own  that  I  did  not  hear  from 
you  when  you  went  away." 

"  And  if  —  if  in  that  mysterious  state  of 
which  I  know  nothing,  nothing  more  than 
of  the  scenes  beyond  the  grave,"  he  said ; 
"  if  in  that  state  I  should  "  — 

She  interrupted  him  with  a  soft  hand  on 
his  mouth. 

"  Then,  should  it  be  true,"  she  said  stead- 
ily, "  it  was  not  you  ;  and  I  love  my  Gott- 
fried just  the  same." 

He  kissed  the  fingers  that  lay  over  his  lips. 

"  But  it  is  not  true,"  she  said.  "  I  know 
it  can  not  be  true.  There  is  some  terrible 
mistake.  You  must  be  brave,  and  all  will 
yet  be  made  clear." 

As  she  spoke,  she  bent  toward  him,  and 
for  a  moment  he  held  her  in  his  arms. 


THE   RING  185 

A  light  tap  sounded  at  the  door  of  the  cell. 

"  Heinrich  has  come  to  see  you,  too,"  she 
said. 

The  next  moment  the  young  man  entered 
and  held  out  his  hand. 

"  You,  too,  believe  in  me  ?  "  asked  Gott- 
fried. 

"  Yes,"  was  the  reply,  "  I  believe  in  you, 
and  I  hope  I  can  help  you." 

Gottfried  repeated  to  him  the  substance 
of  what  he  had  told  Constance.  Heinrich 
listened  attentively,  and  when  he  had  fin- 
ished, gave  him  his  hand  again. 

"  I  must  go,"  he  said.  "  I  have  woi-k  to 
do.  Who  is  your  counsel?  " 

"  Charles  Bernard,  of  the  firm  of  Watson 
and  Bernard,"  said  Gottfried. 

"  And  what  time  was  set  for  the  prelimi- 
nary trial  ?  "  continued  Dierssen. 

"  To-morrow  morning,"  Gottfried  replied. 

"  Then  I  have  no  time  to  lose,"  said  Hein- 
rich. And  he  hurried  Constance  away. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  "  asked  the 
girl,  as  they  turned  up  the  street  together. 


186  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  I  am  going  to  stu^y  the  phenomena  of 
amnesia,"  he  said. 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  asked  Constance. 

"A  blotting  out  of  the  memory.  I  be- 
lieve that  will  in  some  way  explain  the  mys- 
tery of  Gottfried's  life.  He  is  not  in  any 
way  insane ;  and  yet  whole  weeks  of  his  life 
are  an  utter  blank  in  his  mind.  It  may 
be,"  he  added  musingly,  "  that  he  is  respon- 
sible for  Rex  Carrington's  disappearance  ; 
but  I  don't  believe  that  under  any  condition 
short  of  insanity  he  would  commit  murder." 

That  night  Heinrich  Dierssen  sat  in  his 
little  office,  his  desk  strewn  with  books. 
One  after  another,  he  tossed  aside  the  pon- 
derous German  volumes  he  had  consulted ; 
and  at  last  he  drew  from  a  neglected  corner 
of  his  book-case  some  slender  French  books 
bound  in  a  brilliant  red,  at  the  same  time 
taking  down  a  German-French  dictionary  to 
verify  the  medical  terms.  For  a  time  he 
read  in  absorbed  attention  ;  then  he  flung 
the  books  impatiently  aside  as  he  came  upon 
references  to  other  books  that  were  not  in 


THE  RING  187 

his  possession.  It  was  too  late  to  try  to  get 
them  in  the  city  that  night ;  and  he  was  not 
at  all  sure  he  would  be  able  to  find  them 
when  he  did  begin  his  search.  He  fell  to 
musing  over  the  strange  occurrences  in  the 
life  of  his  friend ;  and  more  than  once  he 
started  at  vague  suggestions  of  thoughts  that 
seemed  weird  and  almost  uncanny.  The 
case  held  a  double  interest  for  him,  both 
personal  and  scientific ;  and  his  continued 
leisure  in  the  strange  country  to  which  he 
had  come  had  given  him  opportunity  to  fol- 
low up  his  studies  as  he  wished.  Before  he 
went  to  bed  he  made  out  a  list  of  books 
from  the  references  he  had  encountered  in 
his  reading,  and  determined,  if  possible,  to 
see  the  lawyer  Gottfried  had  named  as  his 
counsel  before  the  case  came  up  in  the  jus- 
tice's court  in  the  morning. 

Through  the  long  night  Constance  lay 
awake,  with  painful  monotony  going  over 
the  scenes  of  the  day;  repeating  word  for 
word  her  conversation  with  Gottfried,  and 
the  assurances  of  hope  that  Heinrich  Diers- 


188  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

sen  had  given  her.  But  the  more  she  thought 
of  it  all,  the  more  inexplicable  it  seemed. 
In  whatever  condition  Gottfried  might  be 
during  the  terms  of  absence,  how  had  he 
managed  to  elude  his  friends,  unless  he  made 
a  habit  of  leaving  the  city  ?  And  even  in 
that  case,  if  he  were  temporarily  mad,  why 
had  the  dementia  not  been  noticed  and 
brought  to  light  ?  But  if  he  hid  himself 
away,  with  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
how  could  he  have  been  at  the  lodging-house 
in  Rex  Carrington's  room  that  night  ?  It 
seemed  to  her  impossible  that  his  mind 
should  be  unbalanced.  There  was  no  evi- 
dence of  it  in  any  of  his  actions  ;  he  had  no 
eccentricities,  no  irregularities  of  habit  out- 
side of  his  sudden  and  unexplained  disap- 
pearances. 

The  possibility  of  his  having  committed 
the  deed,  although  the  horror  of  it  hung  over 
his  own  mind,  she  would  not  for  a  moment 
entertain ;  but  she  trembled  with  the  fear 
that  the  circumstantial  evidence  might  be 
strong  enough  to  convict  him.  And  even 


THE  RING  189 

should  he  be  acquitted  on  the  ground  of 
temporary  insanity,  would  they  not  take  him 
from  her  and  confine  him  in  a  madhouse? 
Or  should  he  be  freed  on  failure  of  sufficient 
evidence  to  convict,  how  would  his  sensitive 
nature  endure  the  strain  of  popular  senti- 
ment against  him  and  his  own  uncertainty 
as  to  his  innocence  ?  Already  she  had  noted 
the  lines  of  suffering  in  his  face ;  and  in  a 
flash  of  shuddering  dread  she  could  see  him 
bowed,  broken,  and  prematurely  old.  She 
thought  of  his  genius  crushed  by  the  blow 
and  lost  to  the  world ;  of  his  life  passed 
in  the  patience  of  a  sorrow  without  hope. 
Then  the  alternative  rose  before  her  mind 
with  realistic  horror;  she  could  hear  the 
awful  words  of  the  judge  as  he  sentenced 
him  to  death  ;  she  could  see  him  on  the  day 
of  execution,  pale,  but  wearing  still  on  his 
face  the  dignity  and  nobility  that  were  natu- 
ral to  him  ;  she  could  hear  his  familiar  step 
as  he  passed  her  on  the  way  to  the  scaf- 
fold- 

With  a  cry  of  horror  she  rose  and  paced 


190  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

her  room  ;  till  at  length,  exhausted,  she  lay 
down  again,  once  more  to  go  over  the  weary, 
torturing  round  of  thoughts,  leading  always 
to  the  awful  climax  of  her  supreme  fear. 


XIV 

A   REMARKABLE   RESEMBLANCE 

WHEN  Constance  entered  the  court-room 
with  Mrs.  Dierssen,  Heinrich,  and  Emma 
Burroughs,  the  place  was  already  nearly 
full.  They  took  their  seats  near  the  front, 
and  Constance  swept  the  room  with  a 
rapid  glance.  Several  young  men,  evidently 
friends  of  Rex  Carrington's,  were  stand- 
ing near  the  door ;  and  Constance  caught 
snatches  of  their  conversation  from  time  to 
time. 

"  They  say  there  is  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance," one  of  them  observed. 

"  But  only  of  the  features,"  said  another. 
"  The  expression,  the  walk,  all  the  move- 
ments are  entirely  different." 

"  Ha !  ha ! "  came  in  loud  tones  from  a 
different  part  of  the  room,  shutting  out  the 
sound  of  the  other  voices  ;  "  I  beat  him  with 
four  aces." 


192  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Nonsense,"  the  second  speaker  was  say- 
ing, when  Constance  could  again  hear  the 
talk  of  the  group  by  the  door  ;  "  the  differ- 
ence in  age  is  enough  to  settle  that." 

"  And  at  the  next  deal  he  threw  up  his 
hand,"  said  the  noisy  individual  across  the 
room. 

"  There  's  the  landlord  of  the  lodging- 
house,"  said  one  of  the  men  by  the  door. 
"  What  induced  Rex  Carrington  to  go  to 
such  a  place  ?  " 

"  Gambling  debts,"  came  with  startling 
distinctness  from  the  other  side  of  the  room. 
But  it  was  not  in  answer  to  the  question  that 
Constance  had  heard  ;  it  was  the  continu- 
ance of  the  conversation  in  which  the  loud- 
voiced  individual  was  engaged. 

The  justice,  a  tall,  thin,  severe-looking 
man,  drummed  on  his  desk,  waiting  impa- 
tiently for  the  arrival  of  the  witnesses  for 
the  prosecution.  The  general  hum  through 
the  court-room  reached  Constance's  ears  in 
broken  snatches  of  sentences  that  repeated 
themselves  mechanically  in  her  brain. 


A   REMARKABLE   RESEMBLANCE      193 

"  Artist  of  ability  —  won  the  third  heat 

—  population  of  fifty  —  ha  !  ha  !  —  painted 
a  Madonna  —  you  don't  say  —  was  engaged 
to  Miss  Ferris  —  disappeared  —  on  the  new 
electric  road  —  ninety  degrees  in  San  —  in 
love  with  a  picture  —  Santa  Monica  races 

—  duel  at  Redondo  —  drank  heavily  —  vote 
for  —  delirium   treinens  —  no  —  I  heard  — 
wonder  "  — 

The  babble  suddenly  ceased,  and  there  was 
a  stir  at  the  door.  A  tall,  veiled  lady  past 
middle  age  appeared,  accompanied  by  a 
lady  much  younger,  with  a  beautiful,  proud 
face ;  and  followed  by  an  alert,  obsequious 
serving-man. 

"  His  mother,  his  fiancee,  his  valet,"  were 
the  murmured  comments. 

The  young  men  at  the  door  bowed,  and 
one  of  them  led  the  way  across  the  room, 
where  the  party  sat  down  by  the  prosecuting 
attorney.  Mrs.  Carrington  dropped  her 
eyes ;  but  when  court  was  opened  and  the 
prisoner  led  in,  she  raised  her  veil  and  let 
her  glance  rest  full  upon  him. 


194  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Constance  had  turned  from  the  little 
group  to  her  lover,  and  as  she  looked  at 
him,  tears  filled  her  eyes.  Notwithstanding 
the  briefness  of  the  time  that  had  elapsed 
since  his  arrest,  his  appearance  was  greatly 
changed ;  his  face  was  haggard,  his  eyes 
deep-sunken,  and  new  lines  were  graven 
deeply  on  his  forehead  and  about  his  mouth. 
Constance  even  noticed  among  the  dark 
locks  that  curled  about  his  face  a  glisten  of 
silver  that  she  had  never  seen  there  before. 
In  the  space  of  less  than  forty-eight  hours, 
he  had  aged  ten  years.  He  turned  to  Con- 
stance and  smiled.  His  face  was  grave,  but 
wore  no  consciousness  of  guilt ;  and  he  met 
bravely  the  curious  glances  that  were  cast 
upon  him  by  the  people  assembled  to  hear 
the  trial. 

As  he  took  his  seat  beside  his  counsel, 
Mrs.  Carrington  sprang  to  her  feet  with  a 
smothered  cry. 

"  My  son !  "  she  exclaimed ;  "  my  son !  " 

With  the  words,  she  started  toward  the 
prisoner ;  but  as  he  turned  his  face  and  met 


A   REMARKABLE  RESEMBLANCE      195 

her  gaze  with  his  serious,  questioning  eyes, 
she  fell  back  in  bewilderment. 

Miss  Ferris,  too,  had  started  as  her  eyes 
first  fell  upon  the  prisoner;  but  she  had 
quickly  recovered  herself. 

"  It  is  a  remarkable  resemblance,"  she 
whispered. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  valet  had  gone  for- 
ward and  spoken  to  the  prisoner. 

"  Mr.  Rex  !  "  he  said.  "  How  did  you 
come  here  ?  " 

Gottfried  looked  at  him  uncomprehend- 
ingly. 

"  I  am  Gottfried  Jager,"  he  said. 

The  voice  was  pitched  low  and  had  a  no- 
ticeable German  accent ;  and  there  was  a 
quiet  dignity  about  the  speaker  that  im- 
pressed the  valet,  accustomed  to  the  imperi- 
ous impulsiveness  of  his  master. 

The  servant  looked  up  at  the  stern  repri- 
mand of  the  justice. 

"  Your  honor,"  he  said  simply,  "  I  thought 
this  man  was  my  master;  but  I  was  mis- 
taken." 


196  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

In  the  midst  of  the  hush  of  expectancy 
that  had  attended  the  episode,  the  justice 
resumed  the  proceedings  of  the  court. 

In  the  reading  of  the  charge,  Gottfried 
started  as  the  name  of  the  missing  man  was 
pronounced.  It  was  Geoffrey  H.  Carring- 
ton  for  the  murder  of  whom  he  had  been 
arrested.  Even  intimate  friends  of  the  miss- 
ing man  were  surprised. 

"  What  does  it  mean?"  asked  one  of  the 
group  by  the  door. 

"  That  was  his  real  name,  you  know,"  re- 
plied another.  "  Rex  was  only  a  nickname 
given  him  in  his  infancy,  on  account  of  his 
imperious  disposition.  It  was  so  a  propos 
that  it  clung  to  him.  They  say  there  has 
been  a  Geoffrey  in  the  family  ever  since  the 
Norman  Conquest." 

"  And  what  is  the  H  for  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know ;  but  it  stands  for  his 
mother's  family  name." 

The  first  witness  for  the  prosecution  was 
Henry  Perkins,  the  valet. 

He  testified  that  on  the  night  of  his  mas- 


A  REMARKABLE  RESEMBLANCE   197 

ter's  disappearance,  he  had  been  roused  from 
sleep  by  movements  in  the  latter's  room ; 
and  that  hastily  dressing  and  going  into 
the  hall,  he  saw  his  master  leaving  the  house 
and  followed  him.  He  watched  him  enter 
a  lodging-house,  and  pursuing  him  into  the 
place,  saw  him  go  into  a  room  at  the  end  of 
the  hallway.  The  witness  tapped  at  the 
door,  but  received  no  response.  Upon  call- 
ing the  landlord  and  demanding  to  see  his 
master,  he  was  ejected  from  the  premises 
with  threats  of  violence.  Some  time  later, 
Mrs.  Carrington,  who  believed  her  son  suf- 
fering from  an  attack  of  delirium  tremens, 
insisted  upon  seeing  him  ;  and  when  she 
found  he  was  not  in  the  house,  questioned 
the  witness,  eliciting  from  him  the  infor- 
mation he  had  already  given  the  court. 
"Witness  and  Mrs.  Carrington  then  went  to- 
gether to  the  lodging-house,  and  were  told 
by  the  landlord  that  he  knew  nothing  of  Rex 
Carrington  ;  but  that  the  room  witness  had 
seen  his  master  enter  had  been  occupied  that 
night  by  Gottfried  Jager,  whom  he  had 


198  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

seen  depart  the  morning  following  the  dis- 
appearance. Since  that  time,  nothing  had 
been  seen  of  the  missing  man. 

He  also  testified  that  a  ring  then  produced 
in  court  had  been  given  by  his  master  to 
Miss  Ferris,  his  fiancee ;  and  that  a  packet 
looking  like  a  small  jewel-box,  such  as  would 
contain  a  ring,  had  been  sent  to  him  by  the 
lady  with  a  note.  He  had  himself  delivered 
the  note  and  the  packet  to  his  master  the 
last  day  the  latter  had  been  seen  ;  and  that 
night,  only  a  few  hours  before  the  disappear- 
ance, when  he  was  carrying  him  from  the 
club-rooms  to  the  carriage  in  an  inebriated 
condition,  the  note  fell  from  his  pocket  and 
witness  picked  it  up.  The  note  was  pro- 
duced and  read.  It  consisted  of  a  few  lines, 
in  which  the  writer  expressed  her  willing- 
ness to  release  Mr.  Carrington  from  his 
engagement  to  her,  and  stated  that  she  re- 
turned the  ring.  Whether  or  not  the  ring 
contained  an  inscription  witness  did  not 
know,  as  he  had  never  seen  it  except  on  the 
lady's  hand. 


A   REMARKABLE   RESEMBLANCE      199 

The  witness  further  testified  that  an  en- 
mity existed  between  his  master  and  Gott- 
fried Jager,  on  account  of  the  former's  seek- 
ing the  acquaintance  of  the  latter 's  fiancee  ; 
and  that  Gottfried  Jager  had  challenged 
his  master  to  a  duel  with  swords.  The  note 
that  Gottfried  had  sent  Carrington  after  the 
failure  of  the  latter  to  appear  at  the  rendez- 
vous, in  which  the  writer  stigmatized  him  as 
a  coward,  and  declared  he  deserved  to  be  shot 
down  in  the  street,  was  produced  and  read. 

Mrs.  Carrington  substantiated  the  state- 
ments of  the  valet  relative  to  the  lodging- 
house  ;  as  did  also  William  Beck,  the  pro- 
prietor of  that  place.  The  latter  added  that 
some  months  before,  the  prisoner  had  first 
come  to  his  place  ;  that  he  was  "  in  liquor," 
and  asked  for  a  room,  paying  rent  for  it  for 
six  months  in  advance,  with  the  injunction 
that  it  should  be  kept  for  his  use,  although 
he  would  probably  occupy  it  but  rarely. 
Since  then,  he  had  visited  the  place  several 
times,  never  to  the  knowledge  of  witness 
staying  more  than  one  night  at  a  time,  some- 


200  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

times  only  a  few  hours  during  the  day.  He 
had  never,  to  the  knowledge  of  witness,  re- 
ceived visitors  in  his  room,  and  apparently 
spent  the  time  in  sleep.  It  was  on  the  morn- 
ing after  his  first  visit  to  the  house  that  he 
had  given  him  the  name  of  Gottfried  Jager. 
At  that  time,  he  seemed  confused,  as  though 
he  had  not  entirely  recovered  from  the  effects 
of  his  debauch. 

The  next  witness  was  Miss  Alicia  Ferris. 
She  testified  that  she  had  known  Geoffrey 
Carrington  for  several  years ;  and  that  she 
had  been  engaged  to  him.  The  diamond 
ring  which  had  already  been  produced  in 
court  she  identified  as  the  one  he  had  given 
to  her  and  she  had  returned  to  him.  She 
also  identified  it  as  the  ring  she  had  subse- 
quently seen  on  the  finger  of  Constance  Wil- 
bur ;  who,  upon  being  questioned,  admitted 
that  it  had  been  given  to  her  by  Gottfried 
Jager.  The  ring  had  no  inscription  when 
in  her  possession ;  and  she  had  never  until 
now  seen  the  words  engraved  upon  it.  The 
witness  had  never  seen  the  prisoner  before  ; 


A  REMARKABLE   RESEMBLANCE      201 

but  recognized  him  as  the  original  of  a  por- 
trait she  had  seen  in  a  locket  worn  by  Con- 
stance Wilbur,  who  told  her  she  was  his 
fiancee.  The  witness  had  thought  at  first  it 
was  the  portrait  of  Geoffrey  Carrington ;  but 
although  there  was  a  remarkable  resemblance 
between  the  two,  it  extended  to  the  features 
alone,  the  expression  of  the  face,  the  move- 
ments, and  the  voice  being  entirely  different. 
She  was  positive  that  no  one,  seeing  either 
of  the  men  alive,  could,  after  a  second  glance, 
mistake  him  for  the  other. 

A  prominent  jeweler  of  the  city  identified 
the  ring  as  one  that  Geoffrey  Carrington 
had  purchased  of  him.  The  stone  was  rare 
and  of  great  value,  and  he  had  never  seen 
its  duplicate.  Another  jeweler  identified 
the  ring  as  one  that  the  prisoner  had 
brought  to  his  store  to  have  engraved  with 
the  words,  Mein  Liebchen.  He  also  de- 
clared the  jewel  to  be  unusually  beautiful 
and  costly.  He  had  asked  his  customer 
where  he  had  obtained  the  ring,  and  re- 
ceived an  evasive  reply. 


202  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

The  defense  had  little  to  offer.  It  was 
evident  they  were  suppressing  evidence  and 
committing  themselves  to  as  little  as  possi- 
ble. The  prisoner's  friends  testified  to  his 
good  character ;  but  as  they  were  chiefly 
unknown  themselves,  their  evidence  carried 
little  weight.  They  also  testified  to  his 
abrupt  departure  from  Mount  Lowe  and  to 
his  unexplained  absences  on  other  occa- 
sions, and  to  his  evident  ignorance  of  his 
condition  during  these  intervals. 

Gottfried  himself  was  either  unable  or 
unwilling  to  give  a  clear  account  of  his 
whereabouts  on  the  night  of  Geoffrey  Car- 
rington's  disappearance.  He  admitted  that 
he  had  passed  a  part  of  the  night  in  ques- 
tion at  the  lodging-house,  leaving  the  place 
the  next  morning.  He  admitted  also  the 
challenge  to  the  duel ;  but  he  denied  that 
he  had  ever  seen  the  man  known  as  Rex 
Carrington,  although  he  had  had  business 
dealings  with  him.  He  admitted  his  pos- 
session of  the  ring,  but  declared  that  he  did 
not  know  how  it  came  upon  his  person.  He 


A  REMARKABLE  RESEMBLANCE   203 

corroborated  the  testimony  of  Constance 
Wilbur  and  Heinrich  Dierssen  as  to  the  in- 
tervals of  lapse  of  memory. 

The  prisoner's  counsel,  who  had  been 
closeted  in  his  office  with  Heinrich  Dierssen 
an  hour  that  morning  before  the  trial,  en- 
deavored to  have  the  case  dismissed  on  the 
ground  of  irresponsibility;  but  the  justice, 
in  view  of  the  strong  circumstantial  evi- 
dence against  the  prisoner,  and  the  lack  of 
sufficient  evidence  of  insanity,  held  him  to 
answer  to  a  charge  of  murder  in  the  first 
degree,  the  trial  being  set  for  three  weeks 
from  that  day.  On  account  of  the  pris- 
oner's known  tendency  to  leave  his  home 
with  no  clue  to  his  whereabouts,  he  refused 
to  allow  bail ;  although  Chester  Robins,  the 
art  dealer,  and  one  of  the  painter's  wealthy 
patrons  were  in  court  ready  to  give  bonds 
for  him. 


XV 

A   STARTLING  THEORY 

DURING  the  three  weeks  that  preceded 
the  trial,  Heinrich  Dierssen  received  at  in- 
tervals packages  of  books  which  he  studied 
diligent!}7  at  home  and  subsequently  took  to 
the  office  of  Watson  and  Bernard,  Gott- 
fried Jager's  counsel.  Charles  Bernard, 
who  was  to  plead  the  case,  followed  the 
marked  passages  or  listened  to  Heinrich's 
translations  with  increasing  interest  and 
frequent  ejaculations  of  amazement. 

"  I  believe  we  '11  win  the  case  yet,"  he 
said,  rubbing  his  hands  together  with  antici- 
patory satisfaction.  "  And  you  really  think 
we  can  prove  "  — 

"  Yes,"  said  Heinrich  eagerly,  tapping  his 
finger  on  the  open  page  of  the  book  he  had 
been  reading  ;  "  that  is  my  theory." 

"There   was   never   such   a  case   in   the 


A   STARTLING    THEORY  205 

courts  before,"  said  the  lawyer ;  and  for 
some  reason  he  burst  into  laughter. 

"  But  such  a  thing  will  need  a  great  deal 
of  substantiation,"  he  continued.  "  We 
must  make  out  a  calendar  very  carefully.  A 
comparison  of  dates  may  give  plausibility  to 
our  theory,  or  it  may  destroy  it  altogether." 

Under  his  direction  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Constance  and  Emma  Burroughs, 
Heinrich  made  out  a  table  of  dates,  showing 
the  day  of  Gottfried's  departures  and  the 
length  of  his  absence.  The  only  localities 
that  they  were  able  to  attach  to  them  were 
Catalina  Island  and  the  lodging-house  of 
William  Beck. 

Next  they  made  note  of  the  dates  when 
Rex  Carrington  had  failed  to  keep  his  ap- 
pointments with  Gottfried ;  at  the  dealer's, 
at  Redondo  for  the  duel ;  and  finally,  they 
added  the  night  he  went  to  the  lodging- 
house. 

"  There  is  a  great  deal  of  work  to  be 
done  right  here,"  said  Bernard ;  "  and  I 
will  do  as  much  as  possible  before  the  trial. 


206  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

What  we  fail  to  get  by  that  time  must  be 
brought  out  in  the  cross-examination.  But 
look  here.  Suppose  your  theory  is  right 
and  the  prisoner  anticipates  the  trial  —  ha ! 
ha!"  and  he  burst  into  another  peal  of 
laughter. 

"  He  would  not  be  believed  if  he  did," 
said  Heinrich.  "  You  need  not  fear  for  your 
laurels." 

"  You  have  missed  your  vocation,  young 
man,"  said  Bernard,  as  Heinrich  rose  to 
leave  the  office ;  "  you  should  have  been  a 
lawyer." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  Heinrich.  "  But  if  I 
had  not  been  a  doctor,  where  would  your 
case  have  been  ?  " 

"  True,  true,"  said  Bernard,  rubbing  his 
hands  delightedly ;  "  I  would  never  have 
thought  of  it  in  the  world." 

But  when  his  visitor  had  departed,  he 
sank  back  in  his  chair  and  fell  into  thought. 
At  length  he  shook  his  head  and  roused 
himself  from  his  reverie. 

"  It 's  a  chance,  and  we  '11  work  it  out," 


A    STARTLING    THEORY  207 

he  said  to  himself,  "  but,  after  all,  I  doubt 
it,  I  doubt  it." 

In  the  meantime,  Gottfried  endured  his 
imprisonment  with  patience  and  resignation. 
However  uncertain  the  future  might  be,  he 
knew  that  in  intent,  at  least,  he  was  inno- 
cent of  wrong ;  and  he  felt  that  at  length 
the  shadow  of  mystery  was  to  be  lifted  from 
his  life.  Sometimes,  indeed,  he  was  tor- 
tured by  strange  doubts.  Was  he  in  reality 
a  madman,  whose  hopeless  condition  was  lit 
up  by  fitful  gleams  of  intelligence,  during 
which  he  had  met  and  loved  Constance 
Wilbur  ?  Was  his  art  the  one  permanent 
thing  he  had  carried  with  him  from  his 
former  life  through  those  regions  of  dark- 
ness in  which  reason  was  eclipsed  ?  But 
still  he  clung  passionately  to  his  love  and 
his  art  as  the  two  eternal  verities  in  the 
mysteries  and  uncertainties  of  his  strange 
existence. 

His  lawyer  came  to  see  him  frequently, 
and  questioned  him  closely,  not  only  as  to 
the  recent  events  of  his  history,  but  also 


208  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

concerning  his  remote  past.  Gottfried  was 
mortified  and  annoyed  that  he  could  not 
give  him  more  definite  information.  His 
childhood  and  youth  seemed  to  have  receded 
into  so  distant  a  past  that  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty he  could  recall  any  familiar  faces  and 
forms.  For  this  reason  he  had  never  spoken 
of  his  past  to  Constance  or  to  any  of  his 
friends.  And  yet,  there  were  shadowy, 
elusive  recollections,  and  more  or  less  dis- 
tinct memories  of  his  early  surroundings. 
His  home  was  somewhere  on  the  Rhine, 
among  the  castled  crags  that  overlooked  the 
stream.  He  remembered  that  in  his  early 
childhood  he  sat  by  the  waves  and  watched 
for  the  water  fays  that  never  came.  Even 
as  he  grew  older,  he  spent  much  of  his  time 
in  pensive  meditation  and  dreams  of  these 
beautiful  creatures  who  could  ensnare  the 
hearts  of  men.  He  had  spent  much  of  his 
time,  too,  by  the  sea ;  and  had  dreamed  of 
the  Meerfrau  rising  out  of  the  waves  and 
kissing  him  with  her  cool  lips,  trying  to 
warm  herself  with  his  human  love.  He 


A   STARTLING    THEORY  209 

could  see  the  moon  rise  from  the  clouds  like 
a  giant  orange,  and  stream  over  the  gray  sea 
in  golden  glances.  Then  he  wandered  on 
the  shore  where  the  white  waves  broke,  and 
heard  sweet  words  spoken  in  the  water. 
Then,  in  the  long  night,  when  his  heart 
could  not  rest,  he  had  called  the  beautiful 
nixy  to  come  and  dance  and  sing  her  magic 
measures.  He  had  begged  her  to  lay  his 
head  in  her  lap  and  kiss  the  life  out  of  his 
breast.  Then  in  imagination  he  left  the 
sea  and  the  skies  with  their  white  mists  and 
climbed  the  mountains,  wandering  through 
the  pines  where  springs  bubbled  up  and  the 
proud  herds  wandered  and  the  sweet  thrush 
sang.  He  climbed  the  mountains  with  their 
great  rock-heights,  where  the  castle  ruins 
stood  gray  in  the  light  of  morning.  He 
saw  the  hut  of  the  miner  on  the  mountain, 
and  heard  the  rustle  of  the  green  fir-trees, 
and  saw  the  brightness  of  the  golden  moon. 
There  were  never  moons  so  large  and  golden 
as  in  Germany ;  there  were  never  pines 
with  whose  rustling  mingled  such  weird 


210  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

suggestions  of  elfin  voices.  And  the  stars 
shone  on  him  out  of  the  great  heaven  ;  and 
in  the  winter  the  cold  mountain  heights 
were  buried  in  glistening  snow.  It  was 
very  beautiful,  that  Deutschland  that  he 
loved ;  but  yet  it  was  so  vague  and  far 
away. 

Of  the  loved  ones  that  surrounded  his 
childhood,  he  had  the  most  shadowy  recol- 
lections. The  faces  were  dim  and  blurred, 
but  the  figures  were  more  distinct.  He 
knew  that  in  the  evening  his  blind  grand- 
mother sat  in  the  easy-chair  that  in  German 
families  is  reserved  for  the  aged,  —  in  this 
case,  a  leathern  elbow-chair ;  that  his  mother 
sat  spinning  with  white  thread,  and  his  fa- 
ther played  the  zither,  singing  softly  the  old 
fairy-lore  he  loved.  There  was  a  little  sis- 
ter, too,  who  sat  on  a  low  stool  and  laid  her 
arm  across  his  knee.  Her  eyes  were  like 
two  blue  stars,  and  her  little  mouth  like  a 
soft  red  rose.  And  when  he  looked  at  her, 
she  smiled  and  laid  her  lily-finger  across  the 
rose-petals  of  her  lips. 


A   STARTLING    THEORY  211 

But  they  were  all  gone,  and  he  was  alone 
in  a  strange  land ;  and  a  veil  whose  dark- 
ness he  could  not  penetrate  lay  over  his  life. 
He  knew  he  had  been  alone  in  the  city, 
ignorant  of  any  language  save  German  ;  and 
that  he  had  sought  out  a  teacher  and  studied 
painting.  Then  he  had  opened  his  studio, 
and  after  that,  his  recollections,  save  for  the 
intervals  of  absence,  were  continuous  and 
distinct. 

Some  of  these  things  he  told  his  lawyer, 
who  smiled  and  rubbed  his  hands  and  said 
the  case  was  coming  on  all  right.  Gottfried 
thought  it  was  professional  cheerfulness 
assumed  to  mask  the  seriousness  of  the 
situation.  He  thought  it  a  little  hard 
that  Heinrich,  too,  was  cheerful  and  in- 
clined to  unseasonable  mirth. 

Every  day  Constance  came  to  see  him,  and 
brought  him  flowers  from  her  little  garden 
at  home.  She  put  in  his  cell  the  potted  fern 
that  had  stood  on  the  window-sill  of  his 
studio,  and  brought  him  his  favorite  books. 

The  girl  herself,  to  whom  Heinrich  had 


212  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

communicated  his  hopes,  was  full  of  fore- 
bodings. She  shuddered  at  thought  of  her 
lover's  possible  madness  ;  but  her  heart  sank 
with  unutterable  dread  at  thought  of  a 
greater  calamity,  in  which  his  heart  would 
no  longer  be  hers.  And  when  Heinrich 
would  have  reassured  her,  she  would  not  be 
comforted. 

Before  Gottfried  she  tried  to  appear  cheer- 
ful ;  but  he  knew  the  sadness  that  lay  be- 
hind her  smiles,  and  loved  her  the  better 
for  it. 

So  the  days  passed  and  the  long  nights  of 
torturing  wakef  ulness,  when  she  lay  tearless, 
with  a  sense  of  weight  on  her  breast ;  long- 
ing to  cry  out,  but  suppressing  the  impulse 
to  shuddering  moans. 

The  morning  of  the  opening  of  the  trial 
broke,  with  the  rustle  of  leaves  and  the  twit- 
tering of  birds ;  and  as  Constance  opened 
her  window,  the  odor  of  blossoms  came  to 
her  with  the  stream  of  light  that  flooded  her 


XVI 

THE   TRIAL 

THE  court-room  was  crowded  when  Con- 
stance entered  with  Mrs.  Dierssen.  She 
looked  over  the  faces,  some  eager  and  ex- 
pectant, others  marked  with  blase  indif- 
ference or  morbid  craving  for  sensational 
developments.  The  prominence  of  Rex  Car- 
rington  alone  would  have  filled  the  place ; 
but  added  to  this  was  the  interest  excited 
by  the  unexplained  mystery  that  hung  over 
the  prisoner's  life,  and  by  the  beauty  of  the 
girl  who  was  supposed  to  have  been  the  in- 
direct cause  of  the  tragedy. 

She  turned  from  the  curious  scrutiny  that 
answered  her  gaze  to  Gottfried ;  and  she 
realized  more  than  ever  before  the  change 
that  a  few  weeks  had  wrought  in  him.  But 
he  smiled  as  his  eyes  met  hers,  and  she  saw 
that  his  courage  had  not  yet  failed  him. 


214  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

The  greater  part  of  the  morning  was  oc- 
cupied by  the  testimony  of  Henry  Perkins, 
the  valet.  In  addition  to  the  evidence  he 
had  given  at  the  preliminary  trial,  he  testi- 
fied that  his  master  was  in  the  habit  of  leav- 
ing the  house  during  the  night  that  followed 
heavy  drinking,  and  of  remaining  away 
from  home  for  various  periods,  ranging  from 
a  day  to  several  weeks  in  duration.  More 
than  once  before  the  night  of  his  final  dis- 
appearance, witness  had  tried  to  follow  him, 
but  had  always  been  foiled  in  the  attempt. 
Either  his  master  slipped  away  when  he 
thought  him  asleep,  or  saw  him  in  pursuit 
and  turned  on  him  furiously,  compelling  him 
to  go  back.  Frequently,  on  his  return,  his 
master  warned  him  not  to  attempt  to  find 
him,  and  charged  him  to  keep  his  mother 
and  all  his  friends  ignorant  of  his  absence. 
In  order  to  do  this  the  more  successfully, 
witness  had  feigned  that  his  master  suffered 
from  delirium  tremens ;  and  Mrs.  Carrington 
had  always  accepted  this  explanation  until 
the  last  unfortunate  occurrence.  On  cross- 


THE    TRIAL  215 

examination,  he  testified  that  it  was  nearly 
a  year  since  his  master  began  to  drink  hea- 
vily and  to  leave  his  home ;  and  witness 
had  always  supposed  he  spent  the  time  of 
his  absence  in  debauch. 

In  reply  to  further  questions  from  the 
attorney  for  the  defense,  the  witness  gave, 
as  nearly  as  he  could  recollect,  the  dates 
upon  which  his  master  had  become  intoxi- 
cated and  subsequently  left  his  home. 

"Did  he  remember  the  events  that  had 
occurred  while  he  was  away  ?  "  asked  Ber- 
nard. 

"  He  never  referred  to  them,"  was  the 
reply  ;  "  but  it  was  none  of  my  business, 
and  Mr.  Rex  kept  a  good  many  things  to 
himself." 

Heinrich  Dierssen,  sitting  in  the  court- 
room, smiled ;  and  Charles  Bernard  made 
a  note  as  he  signified  that  the  witness  might 
retire. 

Several  days  were  occupied  by  the  testi- 
mony for  the  prosecution.  The  evidence 
was  in  the  main  the  same  as  in  the  prelimi- 


216  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

nary  trial,  the  chief  difference  being  that,  in 
the  cross-examination,  dates  were  brought 
out  as  much  as  possible.  Alicia  Ferris  was 
cross-examined  closely.  Did  she  know  Gott- 
fried Jager  ?  Could  she  swear  that  the  pic- 
ture in  the  locket  was  not  the  portrait  of 
Geoffrey  Carrington  ?  Could  she  swear  it 
was  the  portrait  of  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  ? 

To  these  questions  Miss  Ferris  replied 
that  she  had  never  met  Gottfried  Jager ; 
that  she  had  thought  at  first  the  picture  in 
the  locket  was  the  portrait  of  Geoffrey  Car- 
rington ;  that  she  had  changed  her  opinion 
on  account  of  the  difference  of  expression. 
She  could  swear  now  that  it  was  not  the 
portrait  of  Geoffrey  Carrington,  but  that  of 
the  prisoner  at  the  bar. 

When  the  evidence  was  all  in,  not- 
withstanding the  apparent  complacency  of 
Charles  Bernard,  it  seemed  to  the  people 
that  had  crowded  the  court-room  throughout 
the  proceedings  that  Gottfried  Jager  stood 
little  chance  of  acquittal.  It  was  generally 
thought  the  defense  would  be  based  on  tern- 


THE   TRIAL  217 

porary  or  periodic  insanity,  during  an  attack 
of  which  the  crime  had  been  committed. 
Even  the  prisoner,  who  had  followed  the 
proceedings  with  increasing  horror  and  de- 
spair, shared  in  the  general  expectation. 

When  the  attorney  for  the  defense  rose 
to  make  his  opening  speech,  so  sure  did  the 
auditors  feel  of  the  line  he  would  take  that 
little  excitement  was  apparent ;  but  the  gen- 
eral indifference  was  destined  to  be  broken 
by  a  shock  of  surprise. 

"  I  shall  endeavor  to  prove  to  you  the 
innocence  of  my  client,"  he  said,  "  not  by 
casting  discredit  upon  the  evidence  that  has 
already  been  given,  for  every  word  of  it  is 
needed  to  substantiate  the  facts  I  shall  show 
in  the  evidence  for  the  defense.  I  shall 
not  try  to  prove  an  alibi  nor  break  a  single 
link  in  the  chain  of  circumstantial  evidence 
against  the  accused.  So  far  from  doing  so, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  declare  to  you 
openly  in  the  presence  of  the  court  that  I 
believe  every  word  of  the  witnesses  that 
have  already  appeared  before  you  to  be  true. 


218  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Neither  shall  I  urge  the  plea  of  temporary 
insanity,  which  would  be  a  tacit  admission  of 
the  crime.  So  far  from  making  use  of  any 
of  these  devices,  I  shall  endeavor  to  prove 
the  innocence  of  my  client  by  the  strongest 
evidence  possible  in  the  case;  I  mean  by 
producing  in  court  the  supposed  victim  of 
the  crime  of  which  he  stands  accused." 

At  these  words,  a  wave  of  excitement 
passed  over  the  throng ;  and  the  prisoner 
himself  bent  forward  eagerly,  hanging  upon 
the  words  of  his  counsel. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,"  continued  the 
lawyer,  sinking  his  voice  to  low,  vibrating 
tones,  "  Geoffrey  Hunter  Carrington  stands 
before  you  at  the  bar  of  this  court,  arraigned 
for  the  murder  of  himself." 

If  an  earthquake  had  shaken  the  walls  of 
the  building,  the  excitement  could  not  have 
been  more  intense.  The  people  rose  to  their 
feet,  and  the  murmur  of  voices  over  the 
court-room,  broken  by  ejaculations,  deep- 
ened to  a  roar.  It  was  several  minutes  be- 
fore order  could  be  restored.  In  the  mean- 


THE    TRIAL  219 

time,  the  defendant  had  sunk  back  in  his 
chair,  with  bloodless  cheeks  and  eyes  that 
seemed  starting  from  his  head.  Mrs.  Car- 
rington  covered  her  face  with  her  hands, 
and  Alicia  Ferris  turned  a  shade  paler. 
The  face  of  Constance  Wilbur  quivered, 
but  she  kept  her  eyes  fixed  steadily  on  her 
lover. 

"  We  shall  endeavor  to  show,  gentlemen 
of  the  jury,"  the  attorney  went  on,  "  that 
the  periods  of  Gottfried  Jager' s  life,  so  far 
as  known  to  the  public,  coincide  with  the 
periods  that  Geoffrey  Carrington  was  sup- 
posed to  pass  in  delirium  tremens  or  in  wild 
debauch,  and  that  the  periods  of  life  of 
Geoffrey  Carrington  known  to  the  public 
correspond  with  the  periods  when  Gottfried 
Jager  was  mysteriously  absent  from  his 
friends.  We  shall  show  that  although  sev- 
eral urgent  appointments  were  made  be- 
tween the  men,  they  never  met ;  we  shall 
show  that  Geoffrey  Carrington  went  to  Cat- 
alina  Island  and  that  Gottfried  Jager  re- 
turned ;  we  shall  show  that  Gottfried  Jager 


220  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

left  his  friends  without  explanation  or  apo- 
logy at  Echo  Mountain,  and  the  same  even- 
ing Geoffrey  Carrington  appeared  at  his 
home  after  a  prolonged  absence.  We  shall 
show  that  Gottfried  Jager  was  taken  by  a 
servant  and  by  the  sister  of  Miss  Ferris  for 
Geoffrey  Carrington ;  we  shall  show  that 
Geoffrey  Carrington  was  seen  on  a  bicycle 
by  a  friend  of  Gottfried  Jager's,  and  would 
have  been  taken  for  the  latter  had  it  not 
been  known  Jager  did  not  ride.  Finally, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  we  shall  show  that 
Geoffrey  Carrington  entered  the  lodging- 
house  of  William  Beck  and  retired  to  his 
room,  and  that  in  the  morning  Gottfried 
Jager  issued  from  it  as  guiltless  of  crime  as 
the  butterfly  that  emerges  from  the  chrysalis 
is  innocent  of  the  death  of  the  caterpillar 
from  which  it  sprang.  In  short,  we  shall 
show  that  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  is  subject 
to  periodic  amnesia ;  that  is,  that  he  has  a 
dual  personality,  in  each  condition  being 
ignorant  of  the  events  that  have  transpired 
during  the  other ;  that  in  the  first  condition 


THE   TRIAL  221 

he  is  known  as  Geoffrey  or  Rex  Carrington, 
and  in  the  second  as  Gottfried  Jager.  We 
shall  show  that  the  change  from  the  first  to 
the  second  personality  is  caused  by  over- 
indulgence in  alcoholic  drinks ;  while  the 
change  from'  the  second  to  the  first  is  en- 
tirely involuntary,  the  period  of  the  second 
condition  seeming  to  depend  upon  the  degree 
of  inebriety  by  which  it  was  induced.  We 
shall  show  by  medical  and  scientific  author- 
ity that  the  diversity  of  character  between 
the  two,  including  habits,  speech,  movements, 
and  even  the  knowledge  of  languages,  is 
only  the  stronger  evidence  of  their  identity. 
We  shall  show  that  Gottfried  Ja'ger,  whose 
very  name  is  only  the  German  translation  of 
Geoffrey  Hunter,  has  dreamed  for  himself  a 
past  from  the  poems  of  Heine,  of  which 
Geoffrey  Carrington  was  an  enthusiastic 
student;  and  that,  in  common  with  other 
subjects  of  this  disease,  he  forgot  his  mother- 
tongue,  and  retained  the  language  which  was 
the  last  that  Geoffrey  Carrington  had  ac- 
quired, even  speaking  it  with  greater  facility, 


222  Ay  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

his  memory  on  that  subject  being  excited  to 
abnormal  activity." 

As  the  testimony  proceeded,  step  by  step 
the  coincidence  of  dates  was  brought  out 
with  startling  accuracy.  The  baron  testified 
to  Carrington's  studies  and  rapid  advance  in 
proficiency  since  conversing  with  him ;  little 
Lillian  Ferris  and  the  servant  who  admitted 
the  prisoner  testified  to  his  call  the  morning 
Miss  Ferris  had  gone  out  to  drive,  when  they 
had  taken  him  for  Geoffrey  Carrington. 

Gottfried  himself  substantiated  the  evi- 
dence of  the  other  witnesses,  even  to  the 
call  on  Miss  Ferris,  when  he  had  been  re- 
ceived as  a  habitual  visitor  at  the  house ; 
but  so  far  from  availing  himself  of  the 
opportunity  of  escape  that  had  so  unexpect- 
edly offered,  he  disclaimed  his  identity  with 
Rex  Carrington,  and  declared  that  although 
his  recollections  of  the  distant  past  were 
vague,  they  were  attended  by  the  emotions 
of  love  and  veneration  that  one  has  for  his 
early  home. 

Heinrich  Dierssen  was  again  called  to  the 


THE    TRIAL  223 

witness-stand,  and  read  from  the  "Heim- 
kehr "  and  the  "  Harzreise "  the  lines  de- 
scriptive of  the  country  and  the  home  and 
the  family  Gottfried  had  pictured  as  belong- 
ing to  his  own  childhood.  He  also  testified 
as  to  the  phenomena  of  periodic  amnesia, 
being  confirmed  in  this  by  the  expert  testi- 
mony of  a  well-known  medical  practitioner, 
the  best  local  authority  on  diseases  of  the 
brain. 

Mrs.  Carrington  and  the  valet,  who  had 
at  first  taken  the  defendant  for  Rex  Car- 
rington, now  vehemently  denied  the  identity ; 
for,  notwithstanding  the  statements  that  had 
been  made  as  to  the  existence,  in  cases  of 
periodic  amnesia,  of  two  distinct  personali- 
ties, they  could  not  connect  the  quiet,  serious 
dignity  of  this  man  with  the  reckless,  impet- 
uous nature  of  the  young  millionaire. 

The  speeches  for  the  prosecution  and  for 
the  defense  were  both  strong,  and  sentiment 
seemed  to  be  almost  evenly  divided.  Ber- 
nard, to  support  his  theory  of  periodic  am- 
nesia, read  extracts  from  "  Diseases  of  the 


224  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

Memory,"  by  Kibot,  "  Illusions  of  Memory," 
by  Sully,  and  "Character  in  Health  and 
Disease,"  by  Dr.  Azam,  at  the  time  of  the 
publication  of  his  book  President  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  of  Bordeaux  and  Cor- 
respondent of  the  Academy  of  Medicine  of 
Paris.  Among  the  instances,  he  read  from 
Ribot's  "Diseases  of  the  Memory"  an  ac- 
count of  the  case  of  Felida  X ,  reported 

by  Dr.  Azam. 

"  In  the  case  of  Felida  X ,"  he  read 

in  conclusion,  translating  from  the  book  by 
Dr.  Azam  he  held  in  his  hand,  "the  dif- 
ferences of  character  are  very  remarkable. 
In  the  normal  state,  or  in  the  first  condi- 
tion, Felida  was  reserved,  sad,  melancholy. 
...  In  the  second  condition,  and  at  the 
close  of  the  brief  sleep  that  constitutes  the 
period  of  transition,  her  face  was  illumined 
with  gayety,  her  extreme  reserve  had  disap- 
peared, and  she  became  handsome  and  smil- 
ing. There  could  be  nothing  more  striking 
than  this  contrast. 

"  It  was  the  same  with  a  young  boy  who 
presented  an  analogous  state.  .  .  . 


THE    TRIAL  225 

"  Facts  of  this  kind  are  too  infrequent  to 
enable  us  to  establish  a  rule.  But  it  is 
probable  that  in  all  cases  of  doubling  of 
personality,  differences  of  character  play  an 
important  part." 

The  favorable  effect  produced  by  these 
citations  was  somewhat  disturbed  by  the 
closing  speech  of  the  prosecution,  in  which 
an  appeal  was  made  to  common  sense,  and 
the  jury  urged  not  to  give  credence  to  a 
story  that  surpassed  in  wild  improbability 
the  tales  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 

As  the  speech  was  drawing  to  a  close, 
Gottfried  Jager,  who  had  been  sitting  mo- 
tionless, with  his  sunken  eyes  fixed  on  the 
speaker's  face,  put  his  hand  suddenly  to  his 
heart  and  fell  forward  on  the  desk  before 
him.  Bernard  attempted  to  raise  him,  but 
in  an  instant  he  had  sprung  to  his  feet  and 
looked  about  the  court-room  in  amazement. 
The  expression  of  his  face  had  changed 
completely,  giving  him  the  appearance  of 
another  man. 

"  What   the  deuce  does  this  mean  ?  "  he 


226  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

exclaimed  angrily,  looking  from  the  excited 
faces  of  those  about  him  to  the  judge,  who 
had  started  to  his  feet  with  a  smothered 
exclamation.  "  What  am  I  here  for?  " 

The  voice  was  pitched  higher  than  that  of 
Gottfried  Jager,  and  the  German  accent 
was  entirely  wanting.  A  stir  of  excitement 
passed  like  an  electric  shock  among  the 
spectators,  and  a  murmur  of  whispered  com- 
ments and  muttered  ejaculations  arose  ;  for, 
thin  and  pale  as  the  face  had  become,  it  was 
stamped  unmistakably  with  a  personality 
familiar  to  many  in  the  room. 

"  My  son  !  my  son !  "  cried  Mrs.  Carring- 
ton,  rushing  to  him  and  throwing  her  arms 
about  his  neck. 

"  Mother !  "  he  exclaimed,  disengaging 
her  arms  gently,  and  looking  at  her  in  sur- 
prise. 

The  judge  sat  looking  on,  bewildered  into 
temporary  inaction,  leaning  forward  in  his 
chair,  and  gripping  his  desk  with  his  lean 
fingers.  Some  of  the  jurors  had  risen  to 
their  feet,  and  others  sat  open-mouthed  and 


THE    TRIAL  227 

with  staring  eyes.  A  profound  hush  had 
fallen  upon  the  court-room.  In  a  moment 
it  was  broken  by  a  sob.  The  prisoner  at 
the  bar  looked  in  the  direction  of  the  sound, 
and  his  face  lit  up  with  a  sudden  tenderness 
that  for  a  fleeting  moment  recalled  the  face 
of  Gottfried  Jager. 

"  The  Madonna !  "  he  exclaimed  ;  but  Con- 
stance bowed  her  head  in  her  hands  and 
wept. 

The  court-room  was  in  confusion.  Mrs. 
Carrington  had  fainted,  and  the  valet  broke 
into  wild  vociferations  of  the  identity  of  the 
prisoner  and  his  master.  The  people  rose 
to  their  feet  and  began  to  press  toward  the 
front,  where  the  defendant  stood  with  folded 
arms,  looking  about  him,  expectant  and  de- 
fiant. The  judge,  in  doubt  how  to  conduct 
proceedings  under  the  unprecedented  cir- 
cumstances, hastily  adjourned  court.  The 
next  day,  Gottfried  Jager  was  declared  in- 
nocent of  the  crime  with  which  he  had  been 
charged. 


XVII 

A   REBUFF 

SEVERAL  days  later,  Constance  sat  at  even- 
ing by  the  window,  her  head  thrown  back 
against  her  chair,  her  hands  lying  listless  in 
her  lap.  The  paleness  of  her  face  was  ac- 
centuated by  the  dark  dress  she  wore,  and 
the  sweet  mouth  was  drawn  in  lines  of 
grief. 

Ever  since  Heinrich  Dierssen  had  first 
confided  to  her  his  theory  concerning  Gott- 
fried, she  had  tried  to  prepare  herself  for 
the  climax  that  had  occurred  at  the  close  of 
the  trial ;  but  her  efforts  had  been  powerless 
to  soften  the  shock  of  that  terrible  moment 
when  her  lover  had  been  blotted  from  exist- 
ence before  her  eyes.  A  thousand  times 
since  she  had  wished  for  the  common  sorrow 
of  humanity  ;  for  the  long  watching  around 
the  death-bed,  the  stillness  and  the  perfume 


A   REBUFF  229 

of  flowers  in  the  room  where  the  form  was 
coffined,  the  quiet  resting-place  in  the 
shadowed  city  of  the  dead,  and,  after  it 
all,  with  the  tears  and  the  heartache  of  re- 
membrance, the  hope  of  immortality.  But 
none  of  this  was  for  her.  She  was  set  aside 
to  suffer  a  strange  destiny,  outside  the  pale 
of  the  sympathy  of  others.  Her  lover  was 
not  dead;  he  had  never  really  been.  She 
might  as  well  have  loved  a  shadow  or  a 
dream. 

But  the  thought  of  that  other  personality 
that  dared  to  wear  the  face  and  form  of  her 
lover,  returned  to  torture  her.  It  was  as 
though  the  moon,  whose  face  had  beamed 
in  tender  beauty  for  ages  on  the  earth, 
should  turn  to  view  its  hidden  side,  seamed, 
discolored,  terrible.  From  Rex  Carrington 
she  instinctively  shrank  with  dislike  and 
fear ;  for  Gottfried  Jager  she  yearned  with 
inexpressible  longing. 

She  started  as  the  gate-latch  clicked ;  it 
almost  seemed  that  the  familiar  tread  of  her 
lover  must  follow  the  sound.  But  the  steps 


230  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

that  approached  the  house  were  quick  and 
impetuous,  and  were  followed  by  a  pull  at 
the  bell  that  startled  her. 

She  answered  the  ring,  and  started  back 
with  a  low  cry;  Rex  Carrington  stood 
before  her.  She  had  not  time  to  collect 
her  thoughts,  when  he  had  stepped  in  the 
hallway  and  closed  the  door  behind  him. 

"I  have  found  you  at  last,"  he  said, 
"  and,  best  of  all,  in  fulfillment  of  the  hopes 
of  my  wildest  dreams,  you  are  my  fiancee." 

He  put  his  arm  around  her,  and  would 
have  drawn  her  to  him,  but  she  drew  away 
and  motioned  him  back. 

"  Do  not  dare  to  touch  me,"  she  cried, 
"  Gottfried  Jager  was  my  lover ;  Rex  Car- 
rington is  a  stranger." 

The  young  man  fell  back  and  looked  at 
her  in  amazement. 

"  But  I,  too,  love  you,"  he  cried.  "  I  have 
loved  you  ever  since  I  first  saw  the  face  of 
the  Madonna  in  the  window.  Every  day  of 
my  life  since  then  I  have  looked  at  your 
picture  and  worshiped  you." 


A   REBUFF  231 

She  stood  silent  before  him,  unmoved  by 
his  passionate  appeal. 

"  I  do  not  understand,"  he  went  on,  "  why 
you  will  not  love  me.  I  am  Gottfried,  and 
I  have  loved  you  always,  in  both  conditions 
of  my  dual  existence.  It  was  on  account 
of  your  pictured  face  that  I  broke  off  my 
engagement  with  Alicia  Ferris.  I  have 
brought  you  the  ring,"  and  he  drew  it  from 
his  pocket;  "let  me  put  it  on  your  finger 
now." 

She  drew  farther  away  from  him,  and 
stood  with  her  hands  clasped  behind  her. 

"  It  is  useless  to  speak  of  it,"  she  said  ; 
"you  are  not  Gottfried,  and  I  can  never 
love  you." 

Again  he  looked  at  her  in  bewilderment. 
He  did  not  realize  the  great  difference  of 
personality  between  himself  and  Gottfried 
Ja'ger,  and  he  had  been  so  sure  of  success 
when  he  found  that  the  accepted  lover  no 
longer  stood  in  his  way.  In  fact,  he  had 
considered  Constance  as  engaged 'to  himself, 
and  did  not  doubt  that  she  felt  bound  to 


232  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

him  as  well.  He  could  not  understand  her 
refusal ;  he  could  not  conceive  how  she  could 
give  up  a  lover,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
position  and  opportunities  he  offered  her. 

"  But  I  will  make  you  my  wife,"  he  said ; 
"  you  will  be  the  mistress  of  my  house ;  we 
will  travel,  and  I  will  present  you  at  the 
courts  of  Europe.  You  shall  study  music 
in  Paris,  Vienna,  Berlin,  wherever  you  like  ; 
or  you  shall  be  the  queen  of  drawing-rooms 
and  salons.  Your  face  would  be  the  rage 
in  society ;  your  life  would  be  a  succession 
of  pleasures.  There  is  nothing  I  would  not 
do  for  you,  even  to  settling  upon  you  the 
half  of  my  fortune." 

But  as  he  spoke,  the  girl  had  drawn  her- 
self up  to  her  full  height  and  stood  con- 
fronting him,  her  eyes  blazing  with  anger 
and  scorn. 

"  And  you,"  she  cried,  "  you,  in  the  ego- 
tism of  wealth,  think  that  I  can  be  —  bought. 
Mr.  Carrington,  I  have  the  honor  of  wishing 
you  good-evening." 

She    stepped   forward  as  she  spoke  and 


A   REBUFF  233 

opened  the  door.  Mechanically,  he  moved 
to  pass  out,  but  drew  back  and  looked  at 
her  with  a  changed  expression.  Behind  the 
pride  and  scorn  of  her  face,  he  saw  the  pain 
and  the  passion  of  regret,  and  his  imperious 
nature  was  touched  alike  by  her  beauty  and 
her  distress. 

"  Forgive  me,"  he  said  ;  "  I  am  a  brute,  I 
should  know  better  than  to  speak  to  you  like 
that.  But  my  love  drives  me  mad.  I  have 
worshiped  your  face  for  months,  and  now 
that  I  have  found  you,  I  cannot  give  you  up. 
Give  me  some  hope,  some  opportunity  to 
speak  to  you  again.  I  will  be  less  impetu- 
ous ;  I  will  be  careful  not  to  offend  you. 
Only  tell  me  that  I  may  come  to  see  you 
again.  Do  not  turn  me  away  from  your 
house  —  like  this." 

Her  face  had  softened,  and  suddenly  she 
held  out  her  hand. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  she  said,  "  but  it  is  better 
that  we  should  not  meet  again.  It  was  the 
personality  of  Gottfried  Jager  that  I  loved, 
and  not  his  face  and  form.  You  are  as 


234  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

different  as  though  you  were  indeed  another 
man." 

He  bowed  over  her  hand  and  lifted  it  for 
a  moment  to  his  lips ;  then  he  stumbled  out 
into  the  darkness. 

Half  an  hour  later,  when  he  entered  his 
study,  the  face  of  the  Madonna  smiled  at 
him  as  he  feared  the  living  face  would  never 
do.  He  thought  of  the  look  of  scorn  the 
girl  had  flung  upon  him,  Rex  Carrington, 
who  had  been  wont  to  boast  of  his  power 
over  women,  and  he  thought  of  the  words 
with  which  she  had  spurned  his  wealth. 
But  he  loved  her  the  better  and  desired  her 
the  more. 

He  flung  himself  down  in  his  easy-chair 
opposite  the  picture,  and  fell  to  thinking  of 
the  strange  fate  that  had  drawn  her  to  him, 
only  to  separate  them  forever.  He  fell  to 
wondering  what  there  was  in  the  personality 
of  Gottfried  Jager  that  had  won  her  heart, 
and  what  there  was  in  himself  that  evidently 
repelled  her.  Perhaps,  he  thought,  his 
second  personality  was  the  realization  of 


A   REBUFF  235 

the  best  of  which  his  nature  was  capable, 
and  he  reflected,  with  an  impatient  sigh, 
that  in  his  normal  personality  there  was 
plenty  of  room  for  improvement. 

"  Hang  it  all !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  why  can't 
I  stay  Gottfried  Jager  instead  of  Rex  Car- 
rington  ?  I  could  take  my  own  name  and 
claim  my  own  property,  and  still  retain  her 
love.  I  cannot  even  play  the  part,  for  I 
don't  know  anything  about  him  except  what 
I  have  been  told.  I  cannot  paint  pictures, 
nor  even  call  her  '  mein  Liebchen,'  without 
a  detestable  English  accent." 

He  had  taken  the  ring  from  his  pocket, 
and  was  examining  the  inscription. 

"  My  little  love  !  "  he  murmured,  and  for 
a  moment  his  impetuous  heart  bowed  to  the 
sorrow  of  what  seemed  his  inevitable  fate. 

Then  he  was  struck  by  a  sudden  thought. 
He  turned  his  face  from  the  picture  and 
touched  a  bell  in  the  wall  behind  his  chair. 
He  leaned  back  and  folded  his  arms. 

Perkins  appeared  in  the  doorway  and 
waited  for  him  to  speak. 


236  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Bring  me  two  bottles  of  Mumm,  a  pint 
of  Sauterne,  and  a  flask  of  Burgundy  from 
the  new  case  of  Pommard." 

"  Now,  Mr.  Rex,  or  when  the  other  gentle- 
men come  ?  " 

"  Now,"  was  the  reply,  "  there  will  be  no 
other  gentlemen." 

The  servant  started  away,  hesitated,  and 
turned  back. 

"  Mr.  Rex,"  he  said,  "  it 's  not  my  place 
to  tell  you  what  to  do  ;  but  you  know  what  '11 
happen  if  you  drink  that  yourself." 

"  Do  as  I  bid  you,"  said  Rex  impatiently. 
"  You  are  right ;  it  is  not  your  place  to  tell 
me  what  to  do." 

Again  the  servant  turned  to  go,  and  this 
time  he  was  stopped  by  his  master. 

"  Bring  me  my  check  book  and  the  cash 
you  got  at  the  bank  to-day." 

Perkins  disappeared,  and  Rex  leaned  back 
in  his  chair  and  fell  to  meditating  again. 

He  happened  to  glance  at  the  table  and 
saw  a  volume  of  Heine,  open  and  face  down. 
He  picked  it  up,  and  with  a  smile  turned 


A   REBUFF  237 

over  the  leaves,  trying  to  trace  in  its  lines 
the  pictures  of  Gottfried  Jager's  early  home, 
as  it  had  been  described  to  him. 

"  Die  blinde  Grossmutter  sitzt  ja, 
Im  ledernen  Lehnstuhl  dort." 

"  That  is  the  blind  grandmother  in  the 
leathern  elbow-chair  ;  and  here,"  turning 
the  pages  rapidly,  "is  the  dear  little  sister, 
with  eyes  that  he  calls  '  die  lieben  blauen 
Sterne:  " 

He  sighed  and  laid  the  book  down.  Per- 
kins had  entered  with  the  money  and  the 
wine. 

When  the  servant  had  retired,  Rex  put 
the  check  book  and  the  gold  in  his  pocket. 
He  opened  a  bottle  of  champagne,  and  filling 
his  glass,  held  it  a  moment  to  the  light,  look- 
ing at  the  pale  amber  with  the  satisfaction 
of  a  connoisseur.  Then,  holding  the  glass 
toward  the  pictured  Madonna,  he  proposed 
his  solitary  toast :  "  To  the  success  of  Gott- 
fried Jager." 


XVIII 

AN   UNSUCCESSFUL  RUSE 

CONSTANCE  bent  over  her  mother's  couch 
and  kissed  her. 

"  Good-by,"  she  said ;  "  I  won't  be  gone 
long  this  morning." 

"  If  she  only  could  love  him,"  the  invalid 
said  to  herself  as  her  daughter  passed  out 
of  the  room,  "  she  would  not  have  to  wear 
herself  out  with  work  and  live  a  lonely  life. 
But  I  will  not  blame  her,  for  I,  too,  fol- 
lowed the  dictates  of  my  heart." 

She  turned  her  face  to  the  window,  watch- 
ing for  the  nod  and  smile  that  Constance 
would  give  her  as  she  passed  on  the  street. 
But  she  waited  in  vain. 

As  the  girl  stepped  into  the  hallway,  she 
heard  the  gate-latch,  and  the  next  instant  she 
had  put  her  hand  to  her  heart.  A  step  that 
she  had  not  forgotten  was  coming  rapidly 


AN   UNSUCCESSFUL  RUSE  239 

up  the  walk.  She  flung  the  .door  open,  her 
breath  coming  in  gasps. 

"  Gottfried  !  "  she  cried. 

"  Mein  Liebchen  !  "  exclaimed  the  young 
man,  entering  and  closing  the  door  behind 
him. 

He  held  out  his  arms,  and  with  a  sudden 
impulse  of  passionate  yearning  she  flung 
herself  on  his  breast.  He  strained  her  to 
his  heart,  murmuring  over  her  terms  of  en- 
dearment in  the  German  tongue.  It  was 
indeed  Gottfried,  and  not  Rex,  who  had  re- 
turned to  her ;  and  she  clung  to  him  with  a 
wild  wish  that  she  might  cheat  fate  and  hold 
him  to  her  forever. 

"  Do  not  go  away,  do  not  leave  me,  Gott- 
fried, or  I  shall  die,"  she  said  brokenly. 

"  Never,  me/in  Liebchen"  he  said  ;  "  never 
while  I  have  the  power  to  remain.  But 
come,"  he  added,  leading  her  into  the  room 
and  seating  her  beside  him ;  "  there  are 
many  things  that  you  must  tell  me.  This 
cursed  mystery  hangs  over  me  yet.  I  awoke 
this  morning  in  my  studio,  and  the  last  that 


240  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

I  could  remember  I  was  in  the  court-room 
on  trial  for  my  life,  and  it  seemed  that  the 
evidence  was  going  against  me.  Mein 
Liebchen,  mein  Liebchen,  tell  me  if  I  am 
innocent." 

"  You  are  innocent,"  she  assured  him ; 
"  Rex  Carrington  was  produced  in  court." 

"  Thank  God,"  he  said  fervently ;  "  no- 
thing else  matters  now.  You  will  marry  me, 
Constance,  for  I  cannot  give  you  up.  The 
sacrifice  is  too  great  to  ask  of  you,  but  I  can- 
not give  you  up.  Tell  me  that  you  will 
marry  me,  mein  Liebchen" 

For  answer,  she  flung  her  arms  out  over 
his  knees  and,  laying  her  head  upon  them, 
burst  into  tumultuous  sobs. 

He  threw  his  arm  about  her  and  lifted  her 
head  to  his  breast. 

"  What  is  it,  mein  Liebchen  ? "  he  said. 
"  What  can  I  say  to  comfort  you  ?  " 

"  Oh,  Gottfried !  Gottfried !  "  she  moaned, 
"  how  can  I  tell  you  the  truth  ?  " 

"  But  tell  me,  mein  Liebchen"  he  en- 
treated ;  "  I  can  bear  anything  now,  since  I 


AN    UNSUCCESSFUL   RUSE  241 

am  innocent  and  I  have  you.  What  more 
do  I  want  ?  " 

Still  for  a  moment  she  did  not  speak. 
Her  moans  were  like  those  of  a  wild  thing 
of  the  woods  stricken  to  death ;  and  they 
pierced  the  heart  of  Gottfried  with  anguish. 
He  caressed  her  silently,  suffering  her  grief 
to  spend  itself  a  little  ;  then  he  begged  her 
to  tell  him  her  trouble.  When  she  spoke  at 
last,  it  was  with  a  rush  of  impetuous  words. 

"  How  can  I  tell  you  that  I  dare  not  marry 
you,"  she  said  ;  "  that  even  now,  as  I  hold 
you  in  my  arms,  you  may  slip  away  from  me, 
and  leave  me  in  the  embrace  of  a  man  I  ab- 
hor ?  If  I  could  only  hold  you  forever  "  — 
Her  voice  broke,  and  she  hid  her  face  in  his 
breast. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  he  cried  in  sud- 
den fear.  "  Am  I  so  terrible  —  sometimes  ? 
Am  I  a  maniac,  an  idiot,  an  object  of  loath- 
ing and  disgust  ?  Tell  me,  mein  Liebchen, 
for  I  must  know  the  truth." 

"  Gottfried,"  she  asked  solemnly,  lifting 
her  head  and  looking  in  his  face,  "  would 
you  want  me  to  marry  Rex  Carrington  ?  " 


242  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

"  Mein  Gott,  nein"  he  cried.  "  That 
careless,  reckless  breaker  of  women's  hearts, 
that  victim  of  drink,  that  "  — 

"  Hush,"  she  said  gently,  laying  her  fin- 
gers across  his  lips.  "  If  you  do  not  want 
me  to  marry  him,  then  I  cannot  marry  you." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? "  he  exclaimed, 
kissing  her  fingers  as  he  drew  them  away. 

"  I  mean,"  she  said,  shuddering  as  she 
uttered  the  words,  "  that  you  and  Rex  Car- 
rington  are  —  the  same  man." 

The  last  words  were  almost  a  whisper,  and 
for  a  moment  Gottfried  did  not  comprehend 
them.  Then,  as  their  full  significance  broke 
upon  him  and  the  scenes  of  the  trial  he  had 
forgotten  recurred  to  him,  he  groaned  and 
covered  his  face  with  his  hands.  In  an  in- 
stant, however,  he  had  again  drawn  Con- 
stance into  his  arms,  straining  her  to  him 
with  a  despairing  and  passionate  tenderness. 
Neither  of  them  saw  that  the  portieres  had 
been  drawn  aside  and  the  invalid,  who  had 
not  crossed  her  room  before  for  many  months, 
stood  silently  regarding  them. 


AN   UNSUCCESSFUL  RUSE  243 

Suddenly  Gottfried  put  his  hand  to  his 
heart  and  a  shudder  passed  through  his 
frame.  A  moment  later,  Constance  felt  his 
arm  tighten  about  her. 

"  So,  so,  little  Constance,  I  have  you  at 
last,"  said  a  voice,  pitched  higher  than  Gott- 
fried's and  without  the  German  accent.  It 
was  the  voice  of  Rex  Carrington. 

"  No,"  he  said,  as  she  tried  to  draw  her- 
self from  his  arms ;  "  I  shall  not  let  you  go 
so  easily.  That  was  a  brilliant  thought  — 
to  turn  myself  into  Gottfried  Jager;  and 
since  he  has  done  my  wooing  so  well  for  me, 
I  am  going  to  keep  you  until  you  promise 
to  be  my  wife." 

He  bent  his  head  toward  her  face,  but  be- 
fore his  lips  touched  her  cheek  she  had 
sprung  from  his  arms. 

"  Mother !  "  she  cried,  as  the  form  in  the 
doorway  swayed  and  would  have  fallen  had 
she  not  supported  it. 

"  Come  back,"  she  said  gently,  leading  her 
mother  to  her  couch  and  making  her  lie 
down.  "  I  will  send  him  away." 

She  returned  to  the  other  room  and  looked 


244  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

coldly  at  her  guest,  who  had  risen  and  stood 
before  her. 

"  Did  I  understand  you  rightly?"  she  de- 
manded. "  Did  you  change  yourself  to  Gott- 
fried Jager  deliberately  and  for  the  purpose 
of  influencing  me  ?  " 

"  Certainly,"  he  said,  trying  to  speak 
lightly.  "  It  is  fortunate  I  hold  the  key  to 
the  transition.  Whenever  I  become  intoler- 
able to  you  as  Rex  Carrington,  all  I  need  is 
a  bottle  of  champagne  "  — 

She  lifted  her  hand  as  though  to  ward  off 
a  blow  ;  and  as  he  saw  the  agony  of  her 
face,  his  voice  faltered  and  stopped. 

"  Now  go,"  she  said  with  a  voice  of  indig- 
nant scorn  ;  "  and  if  you  wish  to  retain  the 
slightest  measure  of  my  respect,  never  enter 
my  house  again." 

He  opened  his  lips  to  protest,  but  dropped 
his  eyes  before  her  glance,  and  passed  out  of 
the  house  in  silence. 

A  few  days  later,  as  Constance  glanced 
over  the  morning  paper,  she  saw  in  a  soci- 
ety notice  that  Rex  Carrington  had  gone  to 
New  York  to  sail  for  Europe. 


XIX 

VICTORY 

Two  years  had  passed  since  the  morning 
Constance  Wilbur  had  sent  her  lover  away. 

The  Carrington  house  on  Figueroa  Street 
had  been  unoccupied  save  by  care-takers 
and  servants  for  more  than  a  year.  Mrs. 
Carrington,  who  had  never  entirely  recov- 
ered from  the  shock  of  her  son's  disappear- 
ance, and  the  subsequent  developments  of 
the  trial,  had  at  last  succumbed  to  heart 
failure.  All  cablegrams  and  letters  sent  to 
the  latest  address  Rex  had  given,  had  failed 
to  elicit  response  ;  and  the  funeral  had  been 
held,  perforce,  without  the  attendance  of  a 
single  mourner.  Subsequently,  his  friends 
learned  that  he  had  been  with  a  party  in  the 
Orient ;  and  upon  his  return  to  Europe,  he 
had  written  instructions  to  his  legal  adviser, 
declaring  his  intention  of  remaining  abroad. 


246  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

But  that  morning,  on  the  anniversary 
of  his  scornful  dismissal  by  Constance,  he 
emerged  early  from  his  stateroom  on  the 
Pullman  sleeper,  looking  eagerly  for  familiar 
landmarks  as  he  neared  the  end  of  his  long 
journey.  He  had  traveled  from  Paris  with 
no  more  delay  than  was  necessary  to  make 
connection  of  steamer  and  train  ;  and  as  the 
distance  lessened  between  him  and  the  wo- 
man he  still  loved,  his  impatience  visibly 
increased. 

He  had  looked  at  his  face  in  the  glass 
that  morning,  and  knew  that  it  was  much 
changed.  The  expression,  indeed,  was  more 
that  of  Gottfried  than  of  Rex  ;  but  lines  of 
sorrow  and  of  the  mastery  of  the  will  over 
the  passions  had  been  added,  giving  it  firm- 
ness and  a  certain  pathos  that  had  been 
found  in  neither  of  the  two. 

As  the  train  swept  by  over  the  desert, 
with  its  blinding  glare  broken  by  weird 
gnarled  trees  of  cactus  that  stretched  their 
misshapen  branches  in  the  hot  air,  the  events 
of  the  past  two  years  passed  rapidly  through 
his  mind. 


VICTORY  247 

He  had  left  his  home  in  a  blind  mad  rage 
with  fate  ;  cursing  his  misfortunes,  and  car- 
ing only  for  excitement  in  which  he  might 
forget  the  past.  Arriving  in  Europe,  he 
had  sought  the  famous  gambling-places,  and 
alternately  lost  and  won  vast  sums  of  money ; 
he  had  gone  to  Paris,  and  plunged  into  the 
gayeties  of  the  world's  pleasure-city  ;  he  had 
visited  his  uncle  in  England,  and  been  pre- 
sented at  court  and  introduced  to  London 
society  in  the  height  of  the  season ;  he  had 
joined  a  party  of  cyclists  through  Normandy  ; 
he  had  ascended  the  Matterhorn  and  climbed 
the  Hartz  Mountains,  following  the  course 
of  Heine.  But  it  was  all  to  no  avail.  The 
face  of  Constance  was  always  before  him, 
and  the  thought  of  the  love  he  had  lost. 

He  began  to  wonder  what  Gottfried  Jager 
was  like,  and  if  it  would  not  be  possible  for 
him  to  change  himself  by  a  persistent  and 
conscious  effort  into  the  personality  that  in 
some  way  derived  its  being  from  his  own 
brain.  He  settled  down  in  Paris  and  hired 
a  studio,  and  began  to  study  painting.  At 


248  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

this  time  he  knew  nothing  of  the  art ;  he  had 
not  learned  the  first  principles  of  drawing. 

"  How  the  deuce  did  I  ever  paint  that 
Madonna  ?  "  he  asked  himself  savagely,  as 
he  tried  in  vain  to  draw  the  outlines  of  the 
face. 

But  he  did  not  give  up,  and  after  the  first 
few  lessons  he  made  such  rapid  strides  that 
his  work  was  considered  phenomenal. 

However,  he  was  not  satisfied  with  this 
branch  of  development  alone.  He  began  to 
dream  for  himself  an  ideal,  and  this  ideal 
was  such  a  man  as  a  girl  like  Constance 
would  love  ;  and  slowly  and  painfully,  with 
many  lapses  into  the  passion  and  reckless- 
ness of  his  old  life,  he  had  learned  to  live 
up  to  it.  There  was  one  weakness  that  he 
had  mastered  by  a  single  effort  of  the  will ; 
he  had  never  touched  wine  since  the  night 
he  had  drank  to  the  success  of  Gottfried 
Jager.  He  knew  instinctively  now  that  his 
other  personality  would  not  help  him  ;  that 
the  lofty  nature  of  Gottfried  would  not  con- 
sent to  the  sacrifice  of  the  woman  he  loved 


VICTORY  249 

to  a  man  like  Rex  Carrington ;  and  he  knew 
that  Constance  herself  would  receive  Gott- 
fried Jager  no  longer.  He  understood,  too, 
that  although  he  held  the  power  of  transi- 
tion from  Rex  to  Gottfried,  Gottfried  him- 
self was  beyond  his  control.  In  the  second 
condition,  there  was  no  means  by  which, 
should  he  so  desire,  he  could  regain  his  lost 
personality.  And  so  he  had  lived  on  and 
worked  and  dared  to  dream  sometimes  that 
he  might  yet  become  worthy  of  the  woman 
he  loved. 

The  only  break  in  the  labor  of  his  art  was 
made  by  his  trip  to  the  Orient,  during  which 
his  mother  had  died.  After  his  return,  he 
settled  himself  again  in  his  studio,  and  be- 
fore long,  to  his  own  amazement,  he  began 
to  achieve  fame. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  that  year  that  he 
went  to  Rome  to  study,  and  lingered  too  long 
into  the  hot  season,  and  was  stricken  down 
with  the  fever.  For  many  days  he  was  de- 
lirious. At  last,  however,  he  began  to  come 
to  himself.  As  he  did  so,  he  became  gradu- 


250  AN  ELUSIVE   LOVER 

ally  conscious  of  two  sets  of  memories  and 
two  currents  of  emotions.  Now  he  was  Rex 
Carrington,  speeding  on  his  wheel  over  the 
Santa  Monica  road,  or  sitting  in  his  study 
and  gazing  wistfully  on  the  face  of  the 
Madonna.  Again,  he  was  Gottfried  Jager, 
unable  to  speak  a  word  of  English,  and 
taking  his  first  lessons  of  an  obscure  Los 
Angeles  artist,  or  watching  Constance  Wil- 
bur as  she  passed  his  studio  window.  And 
so  he  passed  in  sequence  through  the  double 
life  of  Rex  and  Gottfried,  even  through  the 
transition  period,  when  dazed  and  uncertain 
of  the  morrow,  with  a  sort  of  blind  instinct, 
he  had  hired  the  room  in  William  Beck's 
lodging-house,  that  his  metamorphosis  might 
remain  a  secret  to  his  friends.  He  under- 
stood now  that  the  transition  from  the  first 
to  the  second  condition  was  made  during 
sleep,  and  required  a  much  longer  period 
than  the  return  to  the  normal  personality. 
But  it  was  chiefly  of  Constance  that  he 
thought ;  and  it  was  with  a  wild  joy  that 
he  remembered  the  rapture  of  holding  her 


VICTORY  251 

in  his  arms  and  listening  to  her  low  sweet 
voice  as  it  spoke  to  him  words  of  love. 

"  Mein  Liebchen  !  "  he  cried ;  and  the 
voice  was  deeper  than  his  own,  and  the 
English  accent  was  gone.  And  yet,  while 
he  was  Gottfried,  he  was  Kex ;  the  two  per- 
sonalities had  at  last  merged  into  one. 

From  that  moment  he  resolved  to  go  to 
Constance  and  win  her  back  to  him ;  and 
with  the  new  hope  and  the  new  joy,  his 
strength  came  to  him  rapidly.  As  soon  as 
he  was  able  to  travel,  he  returned  to  Paris, 
settled  his  affairs  there,  and  took  the  steamer 
for  home. 

The  train  sped  on  over  the  desert ;  but 
he  thought  .no  longer  of  the  past ;  he  was 
busy  with  the  present  and  the  imminent 
future  of  to-day. 

It  was  early  evening  when  he  found  him- 
self at  last  in  front  of  Constance  Wilbur's 
home.  His  heart  beat  violently  and  his 
breath  came  fast ;  for  he  caught  sight  of  a 
graceful  figure,  robed  in  pale  rose,  standing 
among  the  geraniums.  He  opened  the  gate 


252  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

and  stepped  into  the  garden  ;  but  the  next 
instant  he  stopped,  frozen  with  fear.  A  little 
toddling  child,  half  hidden  among  the  flow- 
ers, was  clinging  to  her  dress. 

He  turned  away  with  a  groan  and  would 
have  retraced  his  steps ;  but  the  figure 
turned  suddenly,  and  he  found  himself  face 
to  face  with  the  woman  of  his  dreams.  The 
heart-shaped  face  was  the  same,  but  chas- 
tened and  etherealized  by  sorrow  and  the 
brave  endeavor  to  live  worthily  a  life  that 
had  outlasted  hope  and  happiness.  Old 
thoughts  and  memories  of  his  dual  love 
surged  in  his  brain.  His  eyes  looked  into 
hers  with  a  tender  longing,  and  involuntarily 
he  held  out  his  hands  to  her. 

"  Gottfried  !  "  she  cried  ;  "  Gottfried  1 " 

"Yes,"  he  replied;  "I  am  Gottfried  — 
and  Kex." 

He  seized  the  hand  she  held  out  to  him 
and  led  her  to  a  seat  under  a  pepper-tree. 
Then  he  poured  forth  the  story  of  his  life 
since  he  had  left  her;  he  told  of  his  love 
and  his  struggle  to  attain  the  higher  person- 


VICTORY  253 

ality  of  the  man  she  loved,  and  at  last  of 
the  gift  of  double  memory  that  had  come 
to  him. 

And  as  she  heard  him,  she  wept,  and  he 
thought  they  were  tears  of  pity  for  the  hope- 
lessness of  his  love. 

As  he  finished  his  tale,  she  lifted  her  eyes 
to  his  ;  they  were  luminous. 

"  Don't  look  at  me  like  that,  Constance," 
he  entreated ;  "  it  is  hard  enough  for  me  to 
lose  you  after  my  foolish  dreams.  Oh !  how 
many  hours  I  have  thought  of  having  you 
in  my  empty  house  and  in  my  empty  heart. 
There  is  room  for  your  mother,  too,  in  both. 
My  own  mother  is  dead,  and  I  had  hoped  "  — 

"Gottfried— Rex!"  she  cried,  "I  am 
not  lost  to  you  ;  I  —  I  love  you." 

He  looked  at  her  in  amazement ;  then  at 
the  child  that  was  playing  at  her  feet. 

"  Oh  !  "  she  said,  blushing  and  breaking 
into  a  ripple  of  laughter,  "the  child  is 
Emma's  ;  Heinrich's  and  Emma's,  you  know. 
They  live  here ;  they  have  been  married 
nearly  two  years.  And  see,"  she  added, 


254  AN  ELUSIVE  LOVER 

drawing  from  the  folds  of  her  dress  a  silver 
locket,  in  the  centre  of  which  shone  a  pearl ; 
"  I  have  worn  it  always  —  next  my  heart." 

A  wave  of  light  swept  over  his  face.  He 
leaned  towards  her  in  the  gathering  dark- 
ness. 

"  And  you,  mein  Liebchen,  you  will  come 
then  to  my  house  —  my  heart  "  — 

She  did  not  answer  in  words,  but  she 
suffered  him  to  draw  her  into  his  arms. 
And  it  was  thus  that  Heinrich  and  Emma 
found  them  when  they  went  out  to  look  for 
the  child. 


€&e  fitoettfibe 


CAMBRIDGE,   MASSACHUSETTS,  U.  S.  A. 

BLECTROTYPBD  AND  PRINTED  BY 

H.  O.   HOUGHTON  AND  CO. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


SEP  3  01974 
REP  3  0  1974 

OISCHARGE-URL 
P     V  !\V  2  R 1981 

"  MAY  121981 


rni  L9-Series  444 


3   1158  00671"  4934" 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACI LIT 


A     000  030  463     4 


